Former England all-rounder Ian Botham believes that Alastair Cook should be dropped as the team's ODI captain after presiding over another 'flat and tedious' display in an eight-wicket defeat by Sri Lanka on Saturday.
The hosts easily chased down England's paltry 185 in the second match of the series, reaching their target with more that 10 overs to spare thanks to Mahela Jayawardene's 77 not out and Kumar Sangakkara's 67 not out.
Cook, who averages less than 30 in 14 one-dayers in 2014, managed a meagre 22 runs before falling to part-time spinner Tillakaratne Dilshan and offered little attacking intent in the field, Sport24 reported.
England's seventh loss in their last eight ODIs prompted Botham to call for urgent change ahead of next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Botham said that England do need to make changes and they've got to make them quickly, adding that he personally would bring in Alex Hales at the top of the order with Moeen Ali, so that means that the captain has to step down.
Botham said that he would make Eoin Morgan captain because he believes that that's just what he needs as he is a bit more out of the box. He claimed that they are saying that the players that are here have a chance to prove their worth for the World Cup.
But, Botham added that from what they have seen so far, if they are not careful, England won't make the latter stages of the World Cup.
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So, Botham said that they need to make changes, they need to liven it up and freshen it up. He added that the whole thing looked very flat and very tedious out there against Sri Lanka.
Botham claimed that it was pretty lacklustre, adding that he doesn't think there's any way that England can say that they can take anything out of that game positively.
England trail the seven-match series 2-0 ahead of the third game on Wednesday, the report added.
