Gutted at being left out of England squad for 2015 World Cup: Alastair Cook

Alastair Cook has been left out of the World Cup squad

London, Dec 20 - England batsman and former ODI skipper Alastair Cook has said that he was 'gutted' to be left out of England's World Cup squad after fellow left-hander Eoin Morgan was confirmed as the new one-day captain.

Cook was dropped from the 15-man squad to play the tri-series in Australia next month and the World Cup, after the 29-year-old failed miserably in the recent ODIs away at Sri Lanka, where they lost 2-5.

"I'm gutted to be left out of the World Cup squad and it is likely to take me a while to get over the disappointment," he was quoted as saying by the BBC on Saturday.

To make matters worse for Cook, he scored only 119 runs in the six matches he played against Sri Lanka which stretched his ODI barren run to more than 40 matches without scoring a century.

The decision to drop Cook was made at the selectors’ meeting on Friday.

England selector James Whitaker confirmed that Cook's lack of runs had prompted the decision to remove him as the skipper.

"Having reviewed the recent series against Sri Lanka, we came to the conclusion that there was no place for Alastair Cook amongst our strongest 15 one-day players," said Whitaker.