Confident Cook ready for next level

Apart from a lot of sweating and snake-spotting, England weren't able to ascertain too much from their opening warm-up match at the Colombo Cricket Club. The bowlers toiled with little reward on a dead pitch while the batsmen enjoyed a succession of misleadingly unchallenging innings. Nevertheless, for Alastair Cook, who top-scored with 63 before retiring at the lunch break, the chance to build an innings over the course of two-and-a-half hours was not to be sniffed at.

For Cook, however, the more significant cricket took place not in Colombo, but in Brisbane and Hobart, where he watched with interest the success enjoyed by Australia's domineering batsmen, not least his fellow left-hander, Mike Hussey, who racked up hundreds in the first innings of each Test. Australia lost only 11 wickets out of a possible 40 en route to a 2-0 series victory, and Cook believes that the positive mindset they demonstrated - and the knock-on effect it will have on Sri Lanka's morale - is something that England have to capitalise on in the course of the next month.

"Obviously we don't know what these wickets will be like, but we saw how aggressively [Australia] played, and we know that you've got to be positive and look to score," said Cook. "On those wickets you could probably hit through the ball more, but if you just look to survive there will be a ball that gets you out." With that in mind, he's determined to master the sweep - a shot that was his undoing on several occasions in the summer. "I've been working quite hard on that as a gameplan B, and if I have to resort to it, I will."

Muttiah Muralitharan, who needs just five more wickets to overhaul Shane Warne's record tally of 708, is likely to be the target of that strategy. Few people, Cook included, doubt that the record will fall at some stage this series, but in Australia Murali managed just four wickets at exactly 100 apiece. It's proof that the man is not invincible, and Cook believes that the experience he gained from facing Sri Lanka in 2006 will help him go some way towards emulating that success.

"He's a good bowler but picking him is the key," said Cook. "Towards the end of the series in England I was picking him more and more, and if you can pick him and survive defensively, rather than defending and thinking you're going to get out, it gives you a base to work from. I certainly can't score as quickly as the Aussies did, but we'll just do the normal stuff like rotating the strike and playing from the other end."

The strike rotation will be especially important now that England have settled on their new left-hand right-hand combination - the first they've used since Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick were a regular partnership from 2002 to 2004. There is more than a decade's difference between the ages of Cook (22) and Vaughan (33), but the younger man is more than happy to have acquired such an experienced sidekick - even if it means he'll have to take first strike for the first time in his career.

"Vaughany's a good man to bat with," said Cook, after the pair had put on 77 in their first outing of the tour. "He's a serious player who's seen a lot in his career. He's been here [to Sri Lanka] twice and he is quite good technically at picking out something that you're not quite doing right - just one word and he reminds you of your basic skills. It worked well yesterday, and hopefully that's just a good start.

"He looks after a lot of the players in his own way," said Cook. "He'll wander over for a chat, and make sure everyone's alright. And when he's playing he just checks up on you, because his game is quite basic in terms of how he thinks about batting, and he relates that to the way we bat. If your head's falling over, for instance - simple things that when you're in the heat of the battle you forget about. That's what I picked up from batting with him."

Vaughan's batting looked to be back to its sublime best during the home series against India, most notably during his century at Trent Bridge, and he was once again full of attacking intent during his brisk innings of 38 on Thursday. By and large, however, Cook is aware that he and his new partner tend to bat at the same tempo - much as he and the out-of-favour Andrew Strauss did during their summer partnerships.

"We'll just look to get the side off to a good start in the most natural way we can," said Cook. "It's vital that we bat well together because we want to keep as many wickets as we can against the new ball. That means it's more overs that Murali has to bowl. The last thing we want is to be four or five-down when he comes on."