England's Cook relieved to make his mark against India

Just 26, left-handed Cook is moving up the record books at an ominous pace

Alastair Cook stressed it was merely "his turn to contribute" to England's dominance of India after finishing day two of the third Test on 182 not out.

Cook hit 20 runs in his last four innings while England took a 2-0 lead.

"I've been a bit short of runs in this series," he told BBC's Test Match Special. "I felt like I'd been missing out, letting the team down a bit."

The opener insisted that England had not been talking about usurping India as the world's number one Test team.

That now looks a formality after the hosts sailed past India's first innings 224 to lead by 232 runs at Edgbaston.

In doing so, Cook moved ahead of David Gower, Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pietersen in the list of England test centurions.

The left-handed 26-year-old - who has notched seven centuries in his last 13 tests, and 19 overall so far - has now batted for more than eight hours and faced 339 deliveries in a largely safe innings.

"It's been a really good day for the team," he added. "We'd have taken that score this morning. Luckily I managed to score a few.

"I did a bit of work just to make sure I was getting my basics right. Sometimes you slip away from them, but I felt like I got it back today. I managed to get my mental state right so I could keep grinding on, which is important when you're in.

"Hopefully I can get in again [on Friday]. As proven in this series, its been tough with the new ball and I haven't been able to get through it. But this time I did, and I managed to cash in.

"It swung last night, and this morning for the first hour-and-a-half, so it was tough conditions to bat in, to really to score.

"We just tried to grind it out and we knew it would get easier, as it always does when bowlers get tired. [But] let's not look too far ahead.

"Let's not carried away. We've got to have another good day.

"That's our ethos as a side. It is mine and Eoin Morgan's responsibility to get on with it, and hopefully we can start again building a partnership."

With three days remaining and seven wickets in hand, England are well placed to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the four-Test series.

"We're not talking about number one spot," he said. "We're just talking about the next day. We talked about it a few years ago, but we're focused on how we get there rather than the end result."