The England director of men’s cricket Ashley Giles has said reclaiming the urn in the next Ashes series in Australia in 2020/21 is “holy grail” for their Test skipper Joe Root.

England went down by 4-0 in their previous Ashes outing in Australia, before they drew the series earlier this year at home with the visiting party retaining the urn on English soil for the first time since 2001.

Giles said the team is working on a roadmap to win back the Ashes under the guidance of England’s new head coach Chris Silverwood.

"Maybe his lack of form in his new guise had persuaded him that he needed to get ‘the bull’ back? The nice guy act had done nothing for his runs column."https://t.co/vWXH7r2XFQ

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) November 15, 2019

“That’s the ‘holy grail’ for him [Root],” Giles told BBC’s Test Match Special. “We have talked about him leading and winning in Australia. We’ve not said: ‘Maybe if you get there.’ We plan for him to be our captain.”

England last won an Ashes series down under in 2010/11, but have lost nine of their 10 Tests on their next two tours there. England are so keen to win there again that Giles said the planning for series had begun even before this year’s series.

“None of us know what is around the corner. Things can change quickly, but in our planning when we sat down [before the 2019 Ashes series], we were looking to Australia.

"I personally don’t mind it as much as the next generation back, because Test cricket, in my eyes, has gotten more exciting over the last few years."https://t.co/ibDvo25rJ5

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) November 16, 2019

“This is a really exciting period, this new relationship with Chris Silverwood. With these two, we’ve talked about them finding a DNA for Test cricket.

England’s latest Test assignment is the two-match affair against New Zealand, with the first match due to start on Thursday, November 21 at Bay Oval.