Want to take England cricket to next level: Cook

England skipper Alastair Cook has said that at the start of the summer he thought of quitting as captain but England's 3-1 victory over Australia in Ashes series has made him change his mind and focus on taking his side to the next level in cricket.

Hosts England won the fourth Test at Trent Bridge by an innings and 78 runs inside three days to take a 3-1 lead with one Test to go. Australia had earlier lost the first and third Tests and are trailing the five-match series 1-3.

"At the start of this summer I didn't know what was going to happen and I wasn't sure if I would continue beyond the Ashes. But while you've still got the opportunity to be England captain and you've still got more to give, which I now feel I have, then you need to carry on and give it your all to take England to next level," Cook was quoted as saying by dailymail.co.uk on Saturday.

Cook became the target for the bile of those enraged by the sacking of Kevin Pietersen, and took its toll on him and his family and made him think hard about his future.

"There have been some really dark moments in the last year or so. There was the KP affair and that dragged English cricket through some bad periods. I bore the brunt of that negativity and it took it out of me and my family. To come through that means a lot," he said.

"This is not a 'poor me' thing but I felt in the really low moments that I was getting blamed for absolutely everything that had gone wrong. Even when we had a bad day and I hadn't done anything it was still my fault.

"There were times when I found it very hard to deal with and was very close to giving it all up. To stay strong through it all, I'm proud of that," Cook said.