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Andrew Strauss believes Australia's domination of the Ashes series shows England have been "cruising" in recent years but failure will allow Alastair Cook to demand higher standards from the other senior players in the dressing room.
Strauss, who led England to their first series win in Australia for 24 years on the last Ashes tour three years ago, has watched the capitulation under Cook from the Sky commentary box. However, it was during an appearance on Channel 9's Cricket Show during the lunch interval on the fourth day in Perth that he made his comments immediately after Cook had fallen for the first golden duck of his Test career in his 100th appearance.
"Long term, this may be the making of Alastair Cook because it gives him the opportunity to stand up to the rest of the team and say 'This isn't good enough, you need to do things my way from now, it's not about doing things your way'," Strauss said.
"It would allow him to stand above some of those players who are very good friends. His style of captaincy is very much leading by example with the bat. We have got to the stage now where he needs to move further than that. He has got to give more in the field now.
"English cricket needs to have a look at this. Maybe we have been cruising for a little bit too long now. We need to shake things up a bit. We can't just play the same brand of cricket that worked for us a few years ago."
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