England face another shuffle to their personnel ahead of their fifth ODI against Sri Lanka, with captain Alastair Cook returning from a one-match suspension.

In his absence, James Taylor made his third ODI appearance, scoring 90 while batting at three ultimately in a losing cause. His scintillating innings is likely to secure his place in the eleven, though Alex Hales may miss out at Cook’s expense.

Taylor, who showed exactly the temperament which saw him excel for Nottinghamshire this summer, expressed his satisfaction at being able to prove  a point in the international arena.

"Having not played for a while and been waiting in the wings it was nice to prove a point to a lot of people but I knew I could do it," he said. 

"It is nice that I have scored a few runs now so I have got the confidence if I get another opportunity to do it again.

"In the past there has been some great players playing for England and this is probably been the first time that a real gap has opened up and allowed me to even get in the squad. I finally got given that chance and I took it by scoring 90 but obviously I would have liked to score a few more runs.

"I tried to do exactly what I did in county cricket this year and I think you saw a lot of that in my innings. It wasn't my most fluent and the positive thing is I think I can play better. But I got the runs on the board and got the team in a decent position, which I think is my job."

With the series finely poised at 3-1 in favour of the hosts with only three matches remaining, England will have work to do to finish on a high, with their ongoing selection decisions pointing to this being a series of experimentation ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup in the new year. 

"Your best eleven is going to change depending on the conditions and who you're playing against," said Joe Root, one of England’s mainstays in the team. 

"We've got to make sure in our practice, if you are in that best eleven, you do everything you can to go out and play at your absolute peak. All the guys know that, they know what their role is within the side when they fit into it. We've now got to make sure we put all our practice into performances. 

“Even the game that we did win, we didn't play at our absolute best, which again is promising. You don't want to talk about being promising all the time, now's the time for us to step up and start putting in performances. This is a great opportunity for us to do it under pressure before a World Cup.

“This sort of pressure is good practice for a World Cup, so in regards to preparing for it that's as close as we can get. We're just going to try and make sure we put in two really good performances here and finish the series well."

 

Trent Bridge hosts the fourth Royal London One-Day International between England and New Zealand on Wednesday 17 June. Don't miss the chance to take in what promises to be an absorbing contest and secure your seat now.