Would rather win the World Cup than this ODI series: Alastair Cook

England captain Alastair Cook expressed satisfaction after his side’s 41-run win over India in the fifth One-day International, but was also concerned that this was yet another ODI series loss for them. India won the five-match series 3-1 despite the loss in the inconsequential match yesterday. “We badly needed to win this. It becomes slightly frustrating because if you play like that, you’ll win a lot more games. We did a lot of things very well, and a lot of things we know we had to do and haven’t been doing in previous games, like one of those guys, top four or five going on and getting a big score, and then the others can support him. I thought we played nicely with the bat, and 300 was always a good score on that wicket,” Cook said. [caption id=“attachment_1700015” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Cook said the series gave India some valuable lessons: AP[/caption] “The bottom line is we have lost a series. It’s nice to win today. I’d rather win the World Cup than win this series. We’ve got a great opportunity as a side now, for six months to work on our one-day game,” he added. Joe Root hit his second ODI hundred (113 runs) as the hosts scored their highest total of the series, racking up 294/7 in their 50 overs. “Root was obviously the difference. You can get two or three guys getting 20, 30s and 40s if someone else goes on and gets a hundred off 100 balls. You can speak about it enough, and get told you’ve got the wrong tactics. But it’s not the wrong tactics. It’s just people not doing their job very well. We haven’t done that for three games, but we did today,” said the English skipper. “After the first couple of games, Root learned from that and he’ll learn from this hundred. But it was a fantastic hundred, to score a run-a-ball on that wicket. You saw a lot of the other guys struggle to do that. He played beautifully. If we do that, we’re a tough side to beat,” he added. England did make a couple of big changes though, playing two off-spinners in the same side and even pushing Moeen Ali up to number three. “The idea will be to have a batter in the top six who bowls. That balances your side a lot better. We had a lot of options today with the ball, which is nice as a captain. But the only way of doing that is playing a batter who bowls in the top six,” said Cook about the Ali move. “Unfortunately, this series has probably shown up a few more questions than answers, and we’re going to have to go away and think about it quite hard.” The ECB has scheduled a crisis meeting for some time next week to review this ODI series loss and it is understood that Cook’s ODI captaincy will also come under consideration. “No, I haven’t been given any assurances for my captaincy. But I hope to continue leading the side,” said Cook. “There hasn’t been a press conference I’ve been in all summer when someone hasn’t mentioned my future as captain and I always give the same answer. While I still want to do the job and believe I can, then I’ll carry on doing it. If they don’t want me to, then I’ll take it on the chin.” PTI