Alastair Cook is determined to rediscover his touch, but coach Peter Moores was non-commital in his support after another disappointing display from the England captain in the 90-run ODI defeat to Sri Lanka in Pallekele which gave the hosts an unassailable 4-2 lead in the seven-match series.
Cook missed a simple catch to remove Kumar Sangakkara when he was on 41. The 37-year-old went on to score 112 in his final one-day inter- national at his home ground while Cook managed just one run before being out lbw in the first over of his team's reply. England were bowled out for 202 in 41.3 overs in pursuit of 292 for seven.
Cook has had countless tough days over the past 12 months, but this setback was right up there, especially after the encouragement of England's victory at the same venue on Thursday.
Asked if he expected to be captain when England travel down under next month for a tri-series against Australia and India before the World Cup, he said: "Yes."
However, when Moores was asked if the decision to name Cook as England's World Cup captain was set in stone, the coach replied: "It would be wrong as one selector, and there are four of us, not to make sure we review everything at the end of every series. We've always said that.
"We've had many things happen this series and a fairly new batting line-up already, with people like Moeen Ali and James Taylor coming in. We'll look at everything, we always do. We're passionate to get our best team at the World Cup."
Cook added: "It's tough at the moment. Not scoring the runs I'd like is not a great place to be as a captain. You want to lead from the front, and when it's not happening for you it is incredibly frustrating. I'm a better player than I'm showing and I've just got to keep going."
Cook admitted dropping Sangakkara was a critical error. He said: "It was obviously the turning point because I thought our first 24 overs or so were probably the best we've bowled on this tour. There's no hiding place ... it was a catch which I would take more times than not."
For Sangakkara it was a perfect send-off. "This is definitely my last one-day series in Sri Lanka," he said. "So this is my last game in Kandy, unless we play a Test match here which I don't think is in the schedule. I'm at peace with my decision. It is the right time to go. I just wanted to go out with a win, to seal the series before we go to Colombo on Tuesday."
Sri Lanka made a slow start, scoring just 27 runs off the first 10 overs, before Sangakkara opened up, putting on 153 with Tillakaratne Dilshan for the second wicket. Dilshan made a patient 68 before Dinesh Chandimal added a brisk 35 in the closing overs. Chris Woakes, Steven Finn and Chris Jordan captured two wickets each for England.
By the tourists' 18th over they were in deep trouble at 84 for five and although Joe Root scored 55 and Woakes chipped in with 41, the tourists never came close to challenging Sri Lanka's total as Suranga Lakmal mopped up the tail to finish with 4 for 30.
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