‘Right people are on the plane’ says England coach Moores

COMFORTABLE: England head coach Peter Moores. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA.

Cook was last month relieved of his position as leader over the 50-over side, despite the showpiece event in Australia and New Zealand being just around the corner, with Eoin Morgan stepping into the breach.

Moores, who was part of the selection panel which opted to dislodge Cook, said: “We’d got to a position where it felt like it was the right thing to do. It was a braver decision to change it.

“I’m comfortable with that and I think we’ve got the right people on the plane. We’ve got to go out there now and we’ve got to perform. We’ve got to perform well as a team.

“We’ve got to go there with a strong focus. We go there with a strong ambition to go and win a World Cup.”

Cook presided over a woeful run of results and his own displays in the format left a lot to be desired.

Morgan, though, is in something of a trough, too, averaging just 25.45 in 23 ODIs in 2014, and he has gone 20 innings without making a century.

But Moores has backed Morgan to come good, saying: “He will know that form can vary, he will be desperately keen to make sure that he fires as captain.”

England Lions remain on course to begin their tour of South Africa with victory after closing day two of their tour match with a Gauteng Invitation XI 307 runs ahead in Soweto.

On a day where 19 wickets fell, the tourists built on the platform they had been given by centuries from Sam Robson and Yorkshire’s Adam Lyth on Monday to move to 443 all out in their first innings.

In reply, Gauteng were dismissed for a paltry 179 inside 50 overs, although England stuttered to 43-3 afterwards.

Yorkshire’s Alex Lees failed to become England’s third centurion of the innings, dismissed for 85 in the second over of the day.

Lees’s county team-mate Jonny Bairstow batted well with the lower order, bringing up his half-century shortly before fellow Yorkshireman Adil Rashid edged behind off Nono Pongolo for 11.

Bairstow eventually retired out for 62, with five fours and a six, before England were all out for a commanding total.

Gauteng’s innings never got going after they initially slumped to 46-4. Yorkshire’s Liam Plunkett (2-17), Jack Brooks (2-34) and Rashid (1-66) all made an impact.