ALASTAIR Cook had little bother controlling emotions at his farewell press conference, but it was a tearful tale when he first broke it to team-mates that The Oval Test will be his last.

Only a timely quip from all-rounder Moeen Ali, and a few beers, stopped him welling up in the dressing room after Sunday's series-sealing victory over India in Southampton.

As England bid to close out a 4-1 scoreline in their all-time record runscorer's 161st Test, Cook hopes for a send-off in keeping with his prolific career rather than the meagre returns of late which have persuaded him to call time.

It is two days since he told the world of his international retirement, in a prepared statement, but equally fresh in his mind is the moment he needed to address his team-mates on the same matter.

"I was a couple of beers in - which I needed to be - otherwise, I would have cried more than I actually did," said the 33-year-old opener.

"I managed to hold it together. I just said 'this might be good news for some and sad for others, but it's time - I've done my bit, and if picked the next game will be my last one.'

"There was a bit of silence, Mo said something, we all laughed - and everyone got on with it."

Cook's fallow summer helped him make up his mind gradually, of course, but more than anything he realised the mental resilience which has always been his outstanding hallmark was ebbing away.

"I've always had that mental edge; I've always been mentally incredibly tough and had that edge to everything I've done. But that edge had kind of gone. The thing I'd found easy before wasn't quite there, and to me that was the biggest thing.

"Once the decision is in your mind - you ask people about it along the way and they say 'when you know you know' - and I honestly think that's true of me."

Cook, who will play on for Essex after signing a new three-year deal with his lifelong county, is able to cite his brilliant 2010/11 Ashes campaign and first as permanent captain in India six years ago as highlights of his Test career.

There have been more vexed times too, though, and he reflected with honesty on the circumstances which made summer 2014 his lowest point - after the axing of England's mercurial run-getter Kevin Pietersen.

"Clearly the KP affair was a tough year - there's no doubt about that," said Cook. "The fall-out of that ... for 12 months ... wasn't great for English cricket, and wasn't great for me. It could have been handled differently.

"I have a regret over it ... the end of the Sri Lanka series and the Lord's Test [against India], that was the lowest I was. That was when it was real tough, [but] I didn't throw the towel in.

"I still thought I was the best man for the job and the right man to be captain. I could have taken the easy option, but I didn't."

Cook's retirement has been depicted by many as the end of an era, after which few will aspire to bat as he has with the out-and-out patience of a true Test opener.

He said: "I'm not sure I'm the last of a dying breed, but naturally kids are going to be attracted by the razzmatazz of Twenty20 cricket.

"I've seen it when youngsters have come into the Essex team. Their attacking game is better than their defensive game. That's fact, I believe.

"The kids will have a diet of T20 ... (but) I don't think we should be scared of that.

"We have to embrace it, and we are embracing it - and if we play less Test cricket, which might happen, we must just place importance on it."