Moores defends Cook, says skipper can be 'influential' batsman in ODIs

England cricket team coach Peter Moores has insisted that captain Alastair Cook can be an influential batsman in one-day cricket despite former England greats slamming the skipper for his approach.

Last week ex-England spinner Graeme Swann had said that Cook should not be in the one-day team as he scores too slowly. Moores, however, said that Cook has taken some criticism but is a very good one-day player with five hundreds and 19 fifties.

Following successive heavy defeats, England trail 2-0 in the ODI series with India and need to win at Edgbaston on Tuesday to keep the contest alive, The BBC reported.

Cook top-scored with 44 in England's modest 227 at Trent Bridge on Saturday, which India overhauled with six wickets intact and seven overs to spare. The captain has 3,030 runs from 84 ODIs at an average of 37, with a strike rate of 77 runs per 100 balls.

He shared a second successive half-century stand with new opening partner Alex Hales, who made 42 from 55 balls, and Moores said that the skipper is different to an Alex Hales who will play a different role.

The coach added that the key is that they find the right balance of different sorts of players to be able to get where they want to.

After the opening match of the series at Bristol was washed out, England lost seven wickets for 78 runs against India's spinners in a 133-run defeat at Cardiff, and it was the slow bowlers who did the damage again at Trent Bridge, claiming six wickets for 122 runs.

Moores also defended the hosts' collapse against the Indian spinners and said that England has got to find a way of rotating spin better and playing the middle overs better.