Ashes: Alastair Cook says he hasn't made a decision on his future

Batsman Alastair Cook says he has not made any decision on his future as he prepares to become the first England player to appear in 150 Test matches.

The former captain, who turns 33 on Christmas Day, will reach the milestone when the third Ashes Test begins in Perth on Thursday.

"Naturally, there is discussion in any team, senior players talk about the next move," Cook told BBC Sport.

"Ultimately, I don't know. I haven't made any decisions on anything."

Cook has managed scores of two, seven, 37 and 16 as England have lost the first two Tests against Australia.

Former team-mate Kevin Pietersen has said that Cook looks "not very interested", while former Australia pace bowler Mitchell Johnson believes he is on his "last tour".

Responding to those comments, Cook said: "They are very easy comments to make when judged on two games. I haven't seen Mitchell Johnson since 2014 and I bumped into him walking to this interview.

"For him to judge is only on results, it's just filling column inches. The amount of work I've done in the last few days, the nets behind closed doors, shows I'm still hungry."

Motivation to keep playing

Cook made a century on his Test debut against India in Nagpur in 2006.

He missed the third and final match of that series through illness, but has played in each of England's Tests since then.

His run of 147 consecutive matches is bettered only by the 153 of former Australia captain Allan Border.

"Being able to perform consistently enough not to get dropped over a period of time is special," said the opener.

"It's a bit of luck with not getting injured, but to play 147 consecutively stands out for me."

Cook is England's leading Test runscorer with 11,691 and sits ninth on the global all-time list.

Sachin Tendulkar, leads with 15,921, but Cook is not using that mark as motivation to keep playing.

"No, I don't do that," said the Essex left-hander. "At the moment, I'm very much on a game-by-game thing, trying to score runs, trying to set up England wins."

Ashes record

During England's last win in Australia in 2010-11, Cook made a double century in the drawn first Test on the way to a total of 766 for the series.

He was captain between 2012 and the beginning of 2017, presiding over home Ashes wins in 2013 and 2015, as well as a famous series win in India.

However, he was in charge during the 5-0 Ashes whitewash in 2013-14 and came under intense pressure to give up as skipper in the home summer of 2014.

"The 235 at Brisbane gave me a real confidence boost as a launching pad for the next stage of my career, so it would probably be my favourite innings," said Cook.

"Hanging in there during the real tough times with the captaincy in 2014, to get the moment in 2015 with a new side was very special."

Off-field issues

This trip to Australia has been blighted by off-field issues, the first of which came when all-rounder Ben Stokes was arrested for his part in an altercation outside a Bristol nightclub in September.

Since then, Jonny Bairstow was accused of 'headbutting' Australia's Cameron Bancroft at the beginning of the tour and, last week, Lions batsman Ben Duckett poured a drink over James Anderson in a Perth bar.

"At the moment I don't think we're getting painted fairly in the media, on our culture," said Cook.

"The world has changed after the September incident, so it's now down to us to adjust to that quickly. We can't afford any more mistakes, because we understand the stakes.

"You go back to 2013 when we won an Ashes series 3-0, but the public weren't that happy. There was a big disconnect between the players and the public, and over the last three or four years we've made a massive effort to get that connection back.

"Clearly over the last couple of months, we've damaged that and we have to try to rebuild it."

(BBC)