Despite win in last ODI, Alastair Cook's captaincy uncertain for World Cup

London: Despite a much needed win over India in the just concluded ODI series, England captain Alastair Cook's future as an ODI captain still is in doldrums. He has yet to receive an assurance from ECB on being retained captain through their World Cup which is just six months away from now.The eventual margin of 41 runs did not flatter the hosts, who were significantly the better team throughout at Headingley - if not so overwhelmingly as India have been elsewhere on their way to their 3-1 Royal London Series victory.Cook therefore concludes his eventful, and often stressful, summer by avoiding a whitewash with a consolation win.Asked if he has been told already, however, that he will definitely stay in charge when the selectors name their squad later this month for seven one-day internationals in Sri Lanka, Cook said: “No, I haven't.”He can only hope so, but with a little more confidence than he perhaps had on the journey north to Leeds this week after England's previous trouncing at Edgbaston.“We did (badly need to win),” he added. “It becomes slightly frustrating - because if you play like that, you'll win a lot more games.“We did a lot of things very well, and a lot of things we know we had to do and haven't been doing in previous games - like one of those guys, top four or five going on and getting a big score, and then the others can support him.”Root's methods were an endorsement for the tactics England intend to stick to, especially at home - top-order batsmen backing themselves to play long innings, and accelerating with wicket resources intact.Many pundits have been loquacious in their criticism, advising more adventure.But Cook said: “In these conditions, two new balls and 10.30 starts at Headingley, it's going to do a little bit early on - and it's very naive to think you can just whack it straight away.“There is a certain way you have to play.”As for his continued tenure as captain, he repeated a near season-long mantra which extends back to the pressure he was under too before England turned round the Test series against India.He said: “There hasn't been a press conference I've been in all summer when someone hasn't mentioned my future as captain ... and I always give the (same) answer - while I still want to do the job and believe I can, then I'll carry on doing it.“If they don't want me to, then I'll take it on the chin.”Cook has good reason to be grateful to Root, whose hundred on his home ground - and century stand with Jos Buttler - gained the day.“Rooty obviously was the difference. You can get two or three guys getting 20, 30s and 40s if someone else goes on and gets a hundred off 100 balls,” he said.“You can speak about it enough, and get told you've got the wrong tactics. But it's not the wrong tactics - it's just people not doing their job very well.“We haven't for three games, but we did today.”Root reached a strike rate of 100 plus only deep into his innings.Cook said: “It was a fantastic hundred ... to score a run-a-ball on that wicket. You saw a lot of the other guys struggle to do that. He played beautifully.“If we do that, we're a tough side to beat.“It's very easy talking about it - everyone knows about it - but actually doing it is a lot harder.”Cook's opposite number Mahendra Singh Dhoni found himself in the unaccustomed position of trying to explain an ODI defeat.He said: “Three hundred was par score today, and we gave away quite a few soft wickets in the middle order.“We lost too many wickets and were not in position to chase the runs, so those dismissals really cost us the game.”Dhoni has another chance to finish India's tour with a win, in Sunday's NatWest Twenty20 back at Edgbaston.Cook, by contrast, signs off with minor encouragement after series defeats in both Tests and ODIs against Sri Lanka, and a win and a loss against India.“The bottom line is we have lost a series,” he said, before reflecting on a decidedly mixed first season of his and coach Peter Moores' new era.“I feel tired,” he said.“When we've played well, we've played really well - and when we've played badly, we've played pretty badly as well.“It's always interesting (in this job), and this is just another interesting summer.”