ALASTAIR Cook's batting mentor Graham Gooch believes the England captain needs to rebuild his technique to conquer his current slump.

Gooch has been a defining influence on Cook throughout his career, first with Essex and then as England's batting coach - a position he was relieved of earlier this year.

But he remains in close contact with Cook and his advice is to make fundamental changes to the way he approaches innings, rather than simply putting his run of 25 knocks without a century down to a dip in form.

Cook leads his country in the second Investec Test at Lord's on Thursday morning, having managed just five runs in the series opener at Trent Bridge before being bowled via his thigh pad.

"He has found all sorts of ways of getting out recently, and that is what happens when you're in this kind of form, but it would be wrong to say this is just bad form," Gooch told the Independent.

"Alastair does not get 8,500 runs in Test cricket without being a good player. You don't score 25 Test hundreds without being a good player.

"I think sometimes people forget just how good a run-maker he is, but in this instance he is not just in a run of bad form; opposition teams have worked out how to bowl to him to stop him scoring, to stop him playing shots.

"Australia did it, Sri Lanka, and now India have copied it. He has to go back and look at his game and remake it, to work out ways to score runs.

"It is a challenge he has got now and it is up to him to find a way to combat what the opposition are doing to him. He can do it, though."