THE England skipper was going to fall on his sword before this Ashes series even began, but now Captain Cook has his eye on leading one last revenge mission to Australia before his career is up. 
Last week as England stars were relaxing playing golf and drinking in bars, Alastair Cook was feverishly texting all of them to reinforce the importance of grinding Australia's nose into the dust in the Fifth Test.
Cook knows exactly how it feels to be on the other side of the fence, after Australia's ruthless 5-0 whitewash in 2013-14 almost ended his reign as captain right then and there.
The 30-year-old branded as dull by Australian great Shane Warne questioned whether he was the right man to lead England this Ashes series, with Michael Clarke's side arriving in the UK such overwhelming favourites to retain the urn.
However, buoyed by his improvements as captain and riding the wave of an England team on the rise, Cook is now bullish about staying in charge long enough to earn sweet retribution on Australian soil in 2017-18.
"That would be the ultimate, the absolute ultimate to go Down Under again and try and do what we did in 2010-11," Cook said.
"That was the culmination of a lot of hard work, of years growing as a side. "This side certainly has the potential to do that. But there's a very different thing from potential to actually doing it.
"Who knows what's going to happen [with my future]?" Cook has reinforced the importance of going in for the kill. "Australia did it very well to us when they were three-nil up (2013-14), and they hammered us in the next two games as well," he said."It would be really good for the guys who have played in this series to have memories of beating Australia going into the next series in 18 months."