England Must Continue Improving

New England One Day International captain Alistair Cook has called on his team to continue improving following their 3-2 series victory over Sri Lanka.

Cook’s men secured the series with a 16-run win on Saturday to complete a fantastic recovering from being 2-1 down after three matches.

According to Cook though, this is just the start of the hard work for England’s ODI side as they look to become more consistent in this form of the game.

Speaking after Saturday’s win, the England skipper said: “We are a long way off the level we want to be at. The things we talked about as a team at the beginning of the series are going to take time to work out but this is a step in the right direction.”

It certainly was an encouraging series for Cook and England. Personally, the new captain had a great series with the bat, averaging 74.50 to quieten those who said he couldn’t replicate his test form in the shorter version of the game.

There were some good signs for the team as a whole too. Craig Kieswetter has solved the problem at the top of the order, temporarily at least, while Jade Dernbach has burst onto the international cricket scene with lots of success.

Then there were encouraging performances from James Anderson, Jonathan Trott, Stuart Broad and Eoin Morgan as they start to form the backbone of the ODI side like they do the test team.

As Cook mentions though, there are areas that require attention. Should Ian Bell be in the team if he has to bat as low as six? Will Kevin Pietersen ever return to his best form in 50-over cricket?

Taking things a series at a time though, England have to be pleased. They have defeated a good Sri Lanka side against the expectations of many a free bet and continued the post-Ashes momentum going into the visit of India.

Cook continued his assessment, saying: “I think the most pleasing aspect is the way we fought back from 2-1 down in the series.”

“Everyone was writing us off, and we've played well in these past two games in all conditions on spinning wickets and flat wickets.”

England’s next call of duty is the first test match against India next week. It gets underway on Thursday afternoon at Lords.