Monday 8 September 2014 22:26, UK
England coach Peter Moores admits to being frustrated at the amount of criticism captain Alastair Cook has been the victim of this summer.
Cook's position as England's one-day captain has been under the microscope since the series defeat by India, just as it was during the Test series against the same opponent.
England turned around their Test form during the summer and, after losing three games on the trot in the ODI series, ended the international summer with a smile on their face after a win at Headingley and Sunday's Twenty20 success at Edgbaston.
But Cook's form with the bat in the 50-over game continues to see plenty of column inches and he is without a century in his last 39 ODI innings, leaving Moores in a tough position as he plots a course through a series in Sri Lanka and the Tri Series in Australia before the World Cup early next year.
"We are going to sit and look at every position - which is right, because we've got to pick an England team to win a World Cup," Moores said.
"It would be wrong to not look very robustly at every situation in that team, to make sure we do it right.
"I listen to all people's views and I sit in a room with three other selectors, and we make the decision that we think is right. For people to think we are not strategising or not looking at things with a critical eye, we are."
Moores will not be letting any privileged information slip, but there are evident hints that he remains a steadfast ally for Cook.
"If I get a frustration, it's when people question Alastair's quality as a player," he added.
"He's a bloke who's scored five one-day hundreds and who is a very fine cricketer and a very fine batter.
"As captain, you go through a lot of pressures. This summer has had some real highs and some tough parts - and as captain, you are going through all that.
"I think he has shown an enormous amount of fortitude to go through some of the criticism he has had. In one-day cricket, he would say he would have loved to gone on and got more hundreds.
"(But) he's still scored more hundreds than any other England player since the last World Cup - he's scored four to everybody else's two. He's still in the top 10 run-scorers in the world since the World Cup.
"He's had a period of time where he hasn't played as well as he would want to, and he's got to try to get and better.
"That means we are going to have to assess all positions and how we set that side up. We've got a very clear goal of what we want to do, to win a World Cup.
"You don't have a great summer if you've lost a series - a great summer is if you don't get beaten.
"What I've had is a learning summer...I think a lot of players have learnt a lot (too). There's been some outstanding performances, and there have been some lows. I think we are getting better - that's probably the main thing."
