What followed was perhaps England’s single greatest day of Ashes cricket in Australia.
At the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the 100,000-seater cathedral of Australian sport, and on Boxing Day, the highlight of the calendar in this country, the home side were blown away for 98. England – Cook and Strauss – were 157-0 at the close.
“If Carlsberg did Boxing Days, it was that. There was disbelief at the end of the day,” says Cook. “Me and Strauss cleared the MCG with our batting – most people wanted to go home when we were batting together.
“The Aussies are very proud of how many people they can get to the MCG on Boxing Day. By the end there were only 20,000 English people watching me and Strauss grind it around Melbourne.
“If I could go back through my career and play any one day over again, that would be right up there because of what we did as a group.”
Trott made 168 and England won by an innings and 157 runs. They celebrated retaining the Ashes with a sprinkler dance on the MCG outfield.
“I felt a little bit uneasy doing it, because we hadn’t gone there to retain the Ashes – we’d gone there to win,” says Cook.
“I enjoyed the dressing room in Melbourne and a few of the lads went out and enjoyed a night with the Barmy Army, but we hadn’t finished yet.
“A result of 2-2 would have felt a bit of an injustice. However good Melbourne was, we still had Sydney.”
Fuelled by the focus to win the urn, Cook was at it again at the Sydney Cricket Ground. His 189 lifted England to 644, their highest total in a Test in Australia.
The question was not if England would win the match and the Ashes, but when.
“The fourth evening, Chris Tremlett bounced out Brad Haddin and brought Mitchell Johnson to the wicket,” says Cook.
“The song the Barmy Army sang, I’ve never heard anything like it. I spoke to Tremmers and he said ‘I’m just going to bowl this as fast as I can’. He bowled an absolute jaffa to Johnson, and it bowled him. I’ve never heard noise like it.”
England took the extra half an hour on that fourth evening, but could not get over the line.
The fifth morning was a victory procession. The Barmy Army and the rest of the travelling supporters were joined in the SCG by every ex-pat and backpacker in Sydney for an English Ashes party.
“The atmosphere was incredible,” says Cook. “It felt like an age, I was desperate to take the final wicket.
“When Tremlett got Michael Beer out to win the match, it was a moment of pure elation, just incredible.
“It was so early in the day, we had so much time to soak it in. I don’t know when we left the ground, but we stayed for absolutely ages, on the outfield and in the changing rooms. It was very, very special.”
Cook was player of the series. The remaining seven years of his Test career were illuminated by other milestones: a starring performance in the 2012 series win in India, winning the Ashes as captain in 2015 and breaking the England records for most Test runs and hundreds.
There were low moments, too, most notably the humiliating 5-0 defeat in Australia when he was captain in 2013-14.
Following his international retirement in 2018, Cook was knighted for services to cricket. That service was best delivered on the 2010-11 tour of Australia.
“I couldn’t have played any better,” he says. “I was very lucky to have been part of that team, achieving something rare for England in Australia.
“When you win games of cricket, it is unbelievably special. It was hard work, but international sport is hard work.
“It was such a good team to be part of. Flower and Strauss were tough, and that regime was very regimented, but we had the time of our lives there.”