Nothing better than beating India to claim No.1 ranking: Cook

Dubai, July 14 (IANS) England's one-day captain Alastair Cook is confident of his team's chances against India in the upcoming four-match Test series and says there will be nothing 'better' then beating the number one side to get to the top.

England, currently third in the ICC rankings, will dislodge India from the top if they win the home series by at least two Tests.

Cook says facing India will be a great challenge and England's recent win over Sri Lanka in the Tests and One-day Internationals have taken them in the right direction.

'It has been a good couple of months and to win the series is very pleasing. We have certainly got a lot to prove. We know as an English side, we know that we have to win. We have made a step in the right direction,' said Cook on ICC Cricket World Radio Show.

The Southpaw silenced critics of his one-day game by scoring 298 runs in five-matches against Sri Lanka and now wants to replicate the stupendous performance against India.

'It is going to be a great summer, we need to go back to Test mode. We want to be World No.1 in the Test rankings. They have got some players who will go down as all-time greats. But I am very confident that if we play well, we will be a hard side to beat,' said Cook.

The series begins with the first Test at Lord's July 21.

IANS

Cook set to take over ODI captaincy

Alastair Cook is expected to be appointed as England's One Day Internationals captain, with Andrew Strauss set to stand down from his post. Strauss will continue leading the English Test side though.

The ECB is expected to meet on Thursday and formally announce this, alongwith a new Twenty20 captain. Kevin Pietersen and Stuart Broad are the contenders for the T20 job, which would make this the first time that England have three separate captains in all three forms of the game.

The Twenty20 captain will be needed because Paul Collingwood - who recently announced his Test retirement - is reportedly going to give up the Twenty20 captaincy.

The decision of Strauss to step down doesn't come as much of a surprise, with the batsman having indicated the possibility of his stepping down right after the World Cup, in which England crashed out in the quarter-finals after having a series of close finishes in the league stages.

Cook, who has played only 3 ODIs since December 2008, had an outstanding Ashes series in Australia, scoring 766 runs in England's historic triumph. He did captain England in the three ODIs he played in - which were all against Bangladesh in 2010 when Strauss was rested, and gave a good account of himself. England won all three ODIs, with Cook scoring 64, 60 and 32.

© Cricbuzz (with inputs from agencies)