Alastair Cook says the Trent Bridge Investec Ashes Test Match provides an opportunity for England's cricketers to become national heroes.

With the home nation leading 2-1 with two matches to play, victory in Nottingham would secure the urn with a game to spare, and Cook has urged the crowd to become England’s twelfth man during the next five days.

“There is another opportunity for someone to really make a name for themselves in the history of English cricket,” the England Captain said.

“If someone scores a really big hundred, if someone takes six or seven wickets and helps England win the game, their name will be in history forever so that is the opportunity we have as a side.

“It has been a brilliant series, slightly strange with the topsy-turvy nature of the results and I can’t fault the lad’s enthusiasm, I can’t fault their effort in training. For two out of the three games we have played some really good cricket so can we do it again? That is the challenge.

“(At Edgbaston) we kind of earned the right to get the crowd on our side and hopefully we can do the same again this week. Trent Bridge is another good ground for us and hopefully the crowd can be our twelfth man.”

England Head Coach Trevor Bayliss warned his side during the aftermath of the eight wicket win at Edgbaston to expect a backlash from the wounded Australians.

Cook, however, insists that the sole focus of the home nation has been on maximising their own performance.

“It is a dangerous place to be; 2-1 sounds a good position to be, it is a good position but there is a lot of cricket to play so we have to focus on ourselves and focus on that first hour tomorrow morning.

“I am really happy with how the guys have prepared. It is down to the eleven guys. If we play to our potential we will do well, if we don’t we will come unstuck.

“No one gave us a chance at the beginning of the series, everyone was writing us off.

“We can’t control how Australia bat and that is one of our main focuses of this week. You can’t control the end result or how Australia are going to play.

"We can only control how we bowl, how we bat, how we operate, how we field and how we go about our business.”

 

Tickets For Day 5

Tickets for Day 5 of the otherwise sold out Fourth Investec Ashes Test at Trent Bridge are still available priced at just £20. Don't miss the chance to watch the sport's most historic contest and secure your seats now.