England's Alastair Cook happy with favourites tag

Alastair Cook has insisted that he is happy with England being favourites to win the Ashes against Australia.

The hosts are heavily tipped to retain the famous urn ahead of Wednesday's opening Test at Trent Bridge.

"It sits well," the England captain told reporters. "We've been favourites before and coped well.

"We don't pay too much attention to what's going on in the other dressing room. We try to concentrate solely on ourselves."

Cook had the highest batting average of all players during the last series with 127.66 runs as England triumphed in Australia for the first time since 1987.