England slumped to an 87-run defeat at the Premadasa Stadium yesterday which could signal the end of Alastair Cook’s reign as captain.

Cook admitted that England had not been good enough on the tour of Sri Lanka as they lost the one-day international series 5-2.

The tourists wrote an appropriately miserable post script for their failed campaign, bowled out for 215 in 45.5 overs after Tillakaratne Dilshan (101) had laid the foundations for another home win to make the final series score 5-2 to Sri Lanka.

Cook has endured a “terrible” time over the past month, on the admission of England and Wales Cricket Board managing director Paul Downton, and his last attempt went unerringly to script.

And Cook admitted that his team had not shown enough quality on the tour, although he felt there were some signs of hope for the World Cup in the new year.

“It’s been a tough tour in terms of results, we haven’t been good enough in a few areas but people have come through personally,” he said.

“Obviously Joe Root has had an outstanding one-day tour, the way he’s batted. The way Chris Woakes and Chris Jordan in particular bowled.

“We’ve also learned a lot about certain players for the World Cup.

“The bottom line is we haven’t been good enough. We’ve tried everything, we’ve worked incredibly hard throughout the five weeks here so I can’t fault the lads for that.

“We’ve left everything on the pitch we just haven’t been quite good enough.”

Sri Lanka piled up 302 for six and England had to become the first team ever to chase such a total in the country — merely to reduce the nature of their series defeat.

Dilshan (three for 37) undermined them from the outset with the wickets of Moeen Ali, bowled by an arm ball for a golden duck, and Alex Hales — caught at long-on — and only the continued good form of Root (80) saved even more blushes.

Cook’s form in the the one-day game — and overall this year — has come under much scrutiny with many questioning whether he is the right man to lead his country but Cook remains bullish.

“Again it’s frustrating that I haven’t been able to go on. I haven’t played as well as I’d like this tour,” he said.

“I’m working hard on my game, I’m as hungry as ever to score runs, it hasn’t happened on this tour.

“You dust yourself off and you go again.

“I’m captain of my country, yes it hasn’t gone well over the last 12 months with my batting in the one-day game but I would feel very wrong to walk away.”