England cricket captain Alastair Cook dismissed allegations of ball tampering on Wednesday (10th August)

SOUNBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England captain (Q: For the last time this summer are you able to name your team?)

"Yeah hopefully we're goanna go with the same team, so yeah it's always nice when you can name the same team, it means people performing well and stability in selection I think is good,".

SOUNBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England captain (Q: Is the Oval suited to pace bowling?)

"Yeah I think it is more suited to pace bowling, um the oval historically no matter what it looks like is a good cricket wicket, um you know so, I think the pitch will turn later on in the game.. um but we just feel as if our seamers are bowling well and Mose (Mohammad) you know took a massive stride in that last game so hopefully he can continue. It's true, sometimes it is very dangerous to look too far ahead; I mean if we were three nil up in the series then you know you can definitely have an eye on the win but this series is very much alive and we want to, we want to play well and win the series rather than look ahead and prepare for the winter, we've got time to do that,".

SOUNBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England captain (Q: Will Adil Rashid get a run?)

"Well I think he's going to keep gaining experience in the one-day, with the one-day internationals as well, um in the absolutely ideal world with his development, you'd like to give him a go but unfortunately international cricket is not about giving it a go so, it's a results-driven business um and we've got to be fully focused on that for us at the moment. We're not in a position as a side where I feel as if we can do that,".

SOUNBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England captain (Q: So you would maybe disagree with Jimmy Anderson who yesterday said this is a better team than the one that achieved a series win over Pakistan last time?)

"I think it's a more talented team.. the ceiling.. you know there's people who can win the game, win the game of cricket almost in a session or can turn it in a session quicker than that team... this other team in 2012 is probably, well 2011-2012 was a very consistent hard-nosed team which was very hard to beat. YOu know, we've got a way to go there, to get to that level but you know as you saw with some of the brilliance like Ben Stokes you know, getting 100 in a session, you know that kind of stuff is what's very exciting about this team,".

SOUNBITE: (English) Alastair Cook, England captain (Q: Can I ask you about the gossip about ball tampering from England in the last match, just because it is out there, can I just ask you about this?)

"Phhhh it's a loads of rubbish you know I think, I think even I looked on, someone showed me the clip on Twitter or whatever of Rooty (Joe Root) shining the ball so it's um, it's just shining the ball isn't it... let's be honest, it's shinning the shinning on the side of his trousers and um it's an absolute load of rubbish from where I'm concerned. It's like little side-show and hopefully it stays there as I said at the beginning of the series and both sides should be commended for the way they played so far and hopefully we can stick to that."