Cook ready to dish it out now for England

Eighteen months ago the 22-yearold took part in his first full international series and it was a tough learning curve after a flying start.

Three Tests against Mahela Jayawardene's team brought the Essex left-hander scores of 89, 23, 34 not out, 24 and five, with Murali dismissing him twice.

But Cook's second exposure to Sri Lanka's veteran match-winner — starting with the first Test in Kandy a week today — should be less of a culture shock, as he has had ample time to to prepare for the unique ordeal.

Before flying out to Colombo England's batsmen employed the Merlyn bowling machine at Loughborough — setting it to replicate Murali's off-spinner and his devious doosra.

Having made the most of that opportunity to fine tune his technique, Cook watched closely as Australia's top order toyed with the Tamil from Kandy on flat pitches in Brisbane and Hobart.

However, their successful blueprint of all-out attack is not one he is likely to copy: controlled aggression is the order of the day.

'If you are just looking to survive, there will be a ball from Murali which gets you out eventually,' said Cook.

'I don't think I can score as quickly against him as the Aussies did — they are more attacking — but you have to be positive, maybe not hitting fours and sixes in Sri Lanka but keep rotating the strike.

'We were watching the way the Australians played him and I was particularly watching the way that left-handers like Mike Hussey went about it.

'On those wickets you can probably hit through the ball more but we are slightly uncertain what the Test wickets here will be like.

'If they are like the one at the Colombo Cricket Club (where the first warm-up match took place) then the seamers are actually harder work than the spinners.'

Cook admitted during the home series against Sri Lanka that he struggled to 'pick' Muralitharan and adjust his shot selection accordingly.

But yesterday he suggested that his ability to read the spinner's variations improved with time, letting him formulate a plan to combat the 35-year-old.

Asked what he learned from those matches at Lord's, Edgbaston and Trent Bridge, Cook replied: 'That Murali is a good bowler! And he is quite hard to pick.

'Picking him is the key and towards the end of that series I was picking him more. In English conditions there was a bit more bounce so I wasn't going to sweep him much then but in Sri Lanka the sweep option has worked before.

'I have been working quite hard on that as a Plan B — something I can resort to. If you can pick him and survive defensively against him it really gives you a base to work from.'

Unfortunately for England, Muralitharan will have even more motivation than normal to tie them in knots on his home ground next week. He needs five more wickets to pass Shane Warne's world record tally of 708 in Tests.

Cook added: 'It may be a good thing if you have already got a hundred to be his world record wicket, but I don't think any of us really wants to be the one.'

In Kandy, Cook and captain Michael Vaughan will open together in a Test for the first time following the selectors' decision to overlook Andrew Strauss for this tour.

The pair appeared at ease in the opening practice match against a Board President's XI — when Cook made an accomplished unbeaten 63 — and the younger partner expects them to work well in tandem at Test level.

'Hopefully, it will work in a positive way and it's good to have a lefthand, right-hand combination,' he said.

'Vaughany is a great person to bat with because he is a seriously good player and he's been here twice before. He's also good at picking out technical things.'

Cook hopes to play in the second warm-up against a President's XI starting tomorrow.

But it appears that one batsman guaranteed a Test place, possibly Ian Bell or Paul Collingwood, might have to stand down so that Owais Shah and Ravi Bopara can continue their contest for the No 6 berth.

Steve Harmison is also expected to play, in a shoot-out with Stuart Broad or James Anderson for one of the fast-bowling places in Kandy.