Cook should be dropped as England's ODI captain: Botham

Alastair Cook should be dropped as England's One-Day International captain after presiding over another "flat and tedious" display in an eight-wicket defeat by Sri Lanka on Saturday, according to former all-rounder Ian Botham.

The hosts easily chased down England's paltry 185 in the second match of the series, reaching their target with more that 10 overs to spare thanks to Mahela Jayawardene (77 not out) and Kumar Sangakkara (67 not out).

Cook, who averages less than 30 in 14 ODIs in 2014, managed a meagre 22 runs before falling to part-time spinner Tillakaratne Dilshan and offered little attacking intent in the field.

England's seventh loss in their last eight One-Day games prompted Botham to call for urgent change ahead of next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

"England do need to make changes and they've got to make them quickly," Botham told Sky Sports.

"Personally, I would bring in Alex Hales at the top of the order with Moeen Ali - so that means that the captain has to step down.

"I would make (Eoin) Morgan captain because I think that's just what he needs - I think he thinks a bit more out of the box.

"We are saying that the players that are here have a chance to prove their worth for the World Cup. But from what we've seen so far, if we are not careful, we won't make the latter stages of the World Cup.

"So we need to make changes - we need to liven it up and freshen it up. The whole thing looked very flat and very tedious out there today.

"It was pretty lacklustre. I don't think there's any way that England can say that they can take anything out of that game positively."

England trail the seven-match series 2-0 ahead of the third game on Wednesday.