Alastair Cook will be given one final chance tomorrow to prove that he deserves to be given the captaincy before England name their World Cup squad.

A confident batting display from Cook — as well as a resounding victory for the team in the final match against Sri Lanka — may salvage his chances to continue as captain after what has been another poor display in the one-day international tour of Sri Lanka.

National selector James Whitaker gave Cook assurances before England embarked on the ODI series by saying that he was the “unique leader” and was supported “100 per cent” as England’s World Cup captain.

But 87 runs in five attempts, three lbw dismissals, the extension of Cook’s miserable form at the top of the order to just one half-century in 21 innings and a fifth successive series defeat on his watch later, those assurances have been changed with Moores no longer able to guarantee Cook that he will remain captain.

Cook still has Moores’s personal backing but next Saturday, when the 16-man squad is named, the likelihood of a new captain has increased.

The Essex captain has already been listed as the boss in a provisional 30-man squad and if he retains that status when the list is whittled down to 16 then it is all but certain the discussion will end.

Moores said on Sunday: “For me, I think Alastair’s the right man to move us to the World Cup.

“But I’ll go into a room with the other selectors, and we’ll talk about it.

“A lot’s happened over the last six ODIs — a lot of good has happened.

“You have a panel of selectors to talk about stuff. So why wouldn’t you use that?”