Alastair Cook axed as England ODI captain

Sky Sports are also claiming Cook - who turns 30 on Christmas Day - will not captain England in the one-day triangular series between Australia and India prior to the country's first match in the World Cup against Australia in Melbourne on Saturday February 14.

After a "hell of a year" - as Cook described it - the England selectors considers all aspects of England's 5-2 defeat in Sri Lanka as part of their scheduled series review, before announcing a 16-man tri-series squad on Saturday.

Cook conceded after the margin of his fifth successive one-day international series defeat was confirmed on Tuesday as 5-2, by an 87-run trouncing at Colombo's Premadasa Stadium, that he has no "divine right" to be selected to lead the team to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand early next year.

After Tillakaratne Dilshan's century had helped to inflict England's final defeat of 2014, Cook said: "It's been a hell of a year.

"We haven't won a lot of games, and there's been a big change in personnel.

"It's certainly been a year of transition - from 15 months ago, when we were winning the Ashes at home, to what's happened.

"It's been a year you wouldn't expect, but England have found some outstanding cricketers as well."

Opener Cook, who has been woefully out of form with the bat, will be replaced as skipper by swashbuckling middle-order batsman Morgan.

The Essex batsman has toiled all year in the 50-over format, hitting 523 runs in 20 matches at a mediocre average of 27.52

Morgan, however, has fared even worse with the bat in 2014, averaging 25.45.

But the Middlesex left-hander has an impressive record in the eight one-day matches in which he has captained England, piling up 427 runs at an average of 71.16

The World Cup starts on February 14 and Morgan's men have been drawn in Pool A along with Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Scotland.