CAPTAIN Alastair Cook told England they would need to show courage to lift themselves from “rock bottom” after their humiliating 5-0 whitewash was completed in Sydney.

Yet another dismal collapse saw England bowled out for 166 in their second innings to confirm a 281-run win for Australia.

To add insult to injury, the result saw Australia leapfrog them in the International Cricket Council rankings as Cook’s men slipped to fourth.

It is the second time in three series in Australia that England have been beaten 5-0, and Cook looked back to that occasion for proof that his side can recover.

“When you hit rock bottom the only way is up,” he said. “It happened in 2006/7 and things turned round with a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication to the cause.

“We have to look at ourselves, look at where we want to go. We have a huge amount of talent in England. We haven’t shown it in these five games. There’s a lot of courage in the dressing room which will need to come out now.”

Cook admitted it was tough to take such comprehensive defeats in all five games.

“It’s tough knowing you’ve played in five games and been beaten badly in five games,” he said. “As a sportsman that's the hardest thing to take.

“We left everything out there but we weren’t good enough. We weren’t good enough to turn it round.

“We tried to change the way we played but you’ve got to give credit to Michael (Clarke) and his team, anything we could throw at them they responded incredibly well and they thoroughly deserve their 5-0 win.”

Cook reiterated his desire to stay in the job.

“If I was a football manager I’d be scared of the old vote of confidence from the board,” he said.

“But I want to be the man to try to turn this round. Whether I’m given the opportunity is not my decision but I want to try.

“If you look back at 2006/7, it made me take a good look at my game, it made us have a real look at ourselves as an England team and a lot of good came from it.

“I have a feeling this will be good for us in the long term.”