England need to play entertaining brand of cricket - Peter Moores

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Media caption,

Head coach Peter Moores believes England "can beat anybody"

England coach Peter Moores says his players need to make the public excited about watching the national team play.

The squad, which does not include Alastair Cook, fly to Australia on Tuesday for a tri-series ahead of their World Cup campaign next month.

England lost their last one-day series 5-2 to Sri Lanka last month and have won just four of their last 15 ODIs.

"The focus is on the tri-series and World Cup, which we will attack," said Moores, 52.

"We will play in a way that will make the public excited about watching England play."

Speaking ahead of the team's trip to Australia, Moores discussed a number of topics, saying:

  • England are dangerous side which can win the World Cup

  • Cook had every chance to prove himself before being dropped

  • New captain Eoin Morgan will bring his exciting brand of cricket

  • There could be three or four strong combinations from the squad of 15

  • With a packed schedule in 2015, if anyone feels they cannot play good cricket, they will be moved on

In 10 editions of the World Cup, England have never won the competition, but they have finished runner-up three times - 1979, 1987 and 1992.

When asked if he felt England could win the World Cup, Moores said: "Yes, because we have good enough players - we just have to play better.

"If we start to put those individual performances together within a team performance, we'll be a very dangerous side. We can beat anybody."

England 2015 World Cup fixtures

Date

Opponents

Venue

14 February

Australia

Melbourne

20 February

New Zealand

Wellington

23 February

Scotland

Christchurch

1 March

Sri Lanka

Wellington

9 March

Bangladesh

Adelaide

13 March

Afghanistan

Sydney

Cook was dropped after the Sri Lanka series, with Morgan taking over as captain, following a poor run of form.

"It was a tough one on Alastair," said Moores. "He had every opportunity to try and get on the plane and he committed totally to that and to the team.

"All that work won't be lost, we've got a very good set of players, it's time for us to move on.

"I can write three or four different teams which all seem really strong, which is a good place for us to be in."

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Alastair Cook was stripped of the captaincy and dropped from the one-day squad for next month's World Cup

And Moores backed the selectors' decision to give Morgan the captaincy.

"I think he'll bring a lot to team," he said. "He is a very straightforward captain which will be a good thing for us. I think he'll be up for the challenge."

Following the tri-series, against Australia and India, and the World Cup, England will have a short break before flying to the Caribbean for a three-Test tour of West Indies.

They then return to face New Zealand at home in May before welcoming Australia for the Ashes, which starts in July.

"Because there is so much good cricket to play this year, we have to take it in chunks," said Moores.

England fast bowler Stuart Broad

"I think whoever you get drawn against, you can win on that day so we can go in with a lot of confidence, we just need to free ourselves up a bit. We've maybe played a bit of safe cricket over the past few months. We need to free our minds up, free our bodies up."

"The players need to go out there, play good, hard cricket and enjoy representing their country.

"If at any stage someone feels they can't do that, it's time to move them on."

When asked if he would change the more attacking approach England took in the series defeat by Sri Lanka, Moores said: "No.

"We saw players play a different style and we scored at a quicker rate than Sri Lanka in most of the games,

"The change in mindset has started and I think Eoin will drive that forward really hard.

"He plays cricket like that, he wants to be aggressive and I think that's something everybody has embraced."

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