Cook enjoys being in-the-middle man and finds touch

The 25-year-old was becoming worryingly short of runs after two failures in Perth last week.

But he followed a hard-working 32 with an unbeaten 111 in England's second warm-up match, which finished in a rain-affected draw against South Australia at the weekend.

Cook flourished second time around, but stressed the importance of both his innings at the Adelaide Oval – where he followed a wide one, with little foot movement, to go caught-behind soon after lunch at his first attempt on day one.

"To do all the hard work and then play a poor shot straight after lunch was very frustrating," he admitted. "But it was another timely reminder of what batting is like.

"You have to get used again to having a break for lunch, then getting your concentration back."

Far from being disheartened, Cook put the experience to great use as he and captain Andrew Strauss – who raced to his second hundred in successive matches – racked up an opening stand of 181, setting up a declaration before the rain arrived to deny England a shot at adding another victory to their success at the WACA.

They headed yesterday morning for Tasmania, where their final warm-up match before that first Ashes Test in Brisbane will be a four-day fixture against Australia A starting on Wednesday.

"It was great for me to spend so much time in the middle, especially that first innings for me – to get that tempo and rhythm back into your batting," Cook added.

"It's amazing how quickly that rhythm and tempo does come back to you. But it does take that time in the middle to find it."

Cook refused to let his two single-figure scores against Western Australia dent his confidence, well aware there was much scope for improvement as he re-attuned himself to the demands of competitive batsmanship.

"Obviously, it didn't quite go to plan in Perth – so it was vital for me in this game to spend some time out there," he said. "In an ideal world, you'd obviously want to start as you mean to go on. But it was probably about two or two and a half months since I'd had a bat in a match.

"It's all right in nets, for picking the ball up. But trying to find the gaps in the middle is different, and that first innings was really important for me to find my feet.

"The runs look after themselves then."

Cook's task can only have been made a little easier by the continued outstanding form at the other end of his captain Strauss, who has fallen short himself in both first innings so far but made up for it with twin three-figure scores second time round.

"He couldn't have gone much better – two hundreds in the first two games," said Cook.

"He's looking in great nick, and all the guys really are playing well.

"As a squad, things have gone really well. Every batter has spent some time in the middle, and the bowlers have bowled well."

England are being invited by many of their current questioners to admire their own work so far, and maybe slip in the occasional pointed remark about Australia's apparent troubles.

Their Ashes hosts will today announce a squad for the first Test, and reports suggest that – thanks to Australia's poor recent form and a spate of injury concerns and other variables hanging over several players – there may be as many as 16 names.

Cook, like his captain and anyone else who has spoken for England on this tour so far, has no interest in pontificating about what may be ailing Australia.

Neither is he tempted to gloat about the tourists' current well-being.

"It's obviously important we don't get complacent. The big challenges are ahead of us, starting this week against Australia A," he said.

"We mustn't get carried away with what we've done so far. It's great to see Straussy and Colly (Paul Collingwood) hitting the ball really well, but ultimately it doesn't count for too much before the first Test."

At issue over the next two days will be whether England go ahead with their plan to send their first-choice pace attack on to sub-tropical Brisbane early, saving them the dubious benefits of a 'warm-up' match in the very different climes of chilly Hobart.

However, Saturday's rain, which limited the three front-line seamers to only 18 second-innings overs between them, might have put a spanner in the works.