Melbourne, Australia: Alastair Cook's England team came to Australia on a high after a 3-0 home Ashes win and amid speculation it could follow up with a 5-match sweep of the return series Down Under.
After a demoralizing fourth straight heavy test defeat Sunday, England head to the final match in Sydney next week facing the very real possibility of losing 5-0 to Australia for the first time since 2006-07.
"When we left England, we had high hopes of doing something very special," Cook said after England's eight-wicket loss in the fourth test in Melbourne. "I did say at the time we'd have to play some very good cricket if we wanted to achieve that, and we haven't done that."
In the space of just four months, England has relinquished the Ashes, its once feared pace attack appears to have lost its edge, its prolific batting lineup has been overawed by the express bowling of a resurgent Mitchell Johnson and the team looks visibly tired.
Add to the that the loss of Jonathon Trott to a stress-related illness and the shock retirement of spinner Graeme Swann mid-series and captain Cook's team appears to have little in reserve to turn around its fortunes in the fifth test, especially after Swann's replacement Monty Panesar failed to find results in Melbourne while his Australian counterpart Nathan Lyon completed a five-wicket haul in England's second innings.
Still, Cook put on a brave face.
"We've some very good players in our dressing room," he said. "We've some record-breaking players who will have some fantastic days left in an England shirt. I know that for sure. And we'll be praising them when they do that.
"We need that coming out of us now in Sydney -- we need an outstanding 100 or an outstanding 5-for and then everyone jumping on the back of that. That's what turns around a team that is struggling like we are at the moment to put in a good performance."
The previously ever-dependable Cook has also looked vulnerable, making just 27 in the first innings at Melbourne and dropping a much-needed straight-forward catch Sunday inviting questions over his future as captain.
"Well, in a strange way, I'm enjoying the job and I'm enjoying the challenge," he said of leading a losing side. "I'm totally responsible as captain for the team and if, at the end of the series, the selectors decide I'm not the best man for the job then so be it."
Cook was a junior member of the team that was swept in Australia in the 2006-07 series, the first after they'd ended a long Ashes drought with victory on home soil in 2005. That was only the second 5-0 sweep in a contest that dates back to the 1880s.
He established himself as the leader in waiting on the back of his prolific run-scoring when England won in Australia in 2010-11, its first away Ashes triumph in 24 years, and was a natural choice when Andrew Strauss retired. His tenure started well, and England hadn't lost a test in 2013 until this series commenced in Brisbane last month. There were critics of his captaincy style even when England was winning, but the comprehensive nature of the defeats and the outwardly deflated appearance of his team has compounded the pressure on Cook's tenure.
Cook said this lopsided series felt worse for him than the 06-07 series, "Especially as I'm captain as well."
"The bottom line is that the players aren't performing out in the middle," he said. "The part of this game that makes it even more frustrating is that we got ourselves into a good place to put some pressure on Australia: 100 ahead and no wickets down in the second innings."
"I'm desperately trying to use as much as my experience of playing 100 tests to help turn this team around," Cook added. "But as I said, if someone says there's a better man for the job then I have to take that on the chin. It would hurt."
