Alastair Cook has warned that Australia will still present a huge challenge in the Ashes whatever problems they seem to be having, as the England captain returns to county cricket with Essex to prepare for a huge summer ahead.

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Joe Root was the big success story of the winter, and despite Yorkshire looking for him to bat further up the order for his country, Cook says it will do him good to open the batting at county level first. "I don't think it really matters where he bats - I think the higher up he bats for us the better," Cook added on Root. "From an England point of view, facing new ball for Yorkshire and facing the best bowlers gives him the best challenge and hopefully he can keep improving and keep learning." Although the international summer will unsurprisingly be occupying Cook's mind, he is still keen for Essex to clamber out of Division Two of the County Championship this season. "The big goal for the lads is to get out of this Division Two, for the last three years we've been in Division Two and we've been kind of pushing for promotion but not quite getting there. "This year we want to take that one step further and get one of those automatic promotion places, we've certainly got the squad, some new signings as well so certainly strengthening our squad a lot and we've also got a lot of young players who can hopefully come on this year."

Ashes 2013: England captain Alastair Cook warns Australia will provide tough test

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