Joe Root became England 's most successful Test captain last week by leading them to a dominant win over India at Headingley.
The victory was Root's 27th as skipper and took him past Michael Vaughan for the most wins by an England Test captain.
Reacting to Root breaking his record in a column for the Daily Telegraph, Vaughan claimed that Root will not be considered "a great captain" until he wins the Ashes.
Vaughan wrote: "I realise I might cop a little bit of flak for this but Joe will not go down as a great captain until he beats Australia, probably even in his own mind, and who knows, his third crack at it this winter might be his last.
"Not many get four bites at the cherry. When you receive that great phone call to offer you the England job, your sole focus is on how to beat Australia.
"You want to win the Ashes more than anything and anyone who disagrees is lying."
Root has now responded to Vaughan's claim, saying it is "sort of irrelevant" what "other people think of me as captain".
He said: "I think as England captain you are always judged slightly on how you do in Ashes cricket.
"I need to make sure we win this series against India first, but Australia is something we’ve been planning for a long time.
"It’s certainly something that everyone wants to do, go to Australia and win, whether as a captain or player.
"It’s something you’re desperate to do in your career. But in terms of what other people think of me as captain, it’s sort of irrelevant.
"My job is to do the best job I can for the period I have the role. I’ll continue to give everything to the team and at the end of it, if that’s not good enough for some people, I’ll still have done all I can and I can be proud of that."
