JOE ROOT is confident England can defy their critics and be contenders for this winter’s one-day World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The Yorkshire batsman was part of the England side which lost home series against Sri Lanka and India, with the majority of pundits now viewing them as outsiders for a maiden major one-day title.

Root, however, believes Alastair Cook’s men have got the ideal preparation with series in Sri Lanka and Australia either side of Christmas, and he is backing them to find form ahead of a mouthwatering pool 'A' opener against the Aussies at the MCG on February 14.

England at least head into their winter programme on the back of a win having beaten India in the final ODI of the summer by 41 runs at Headingley last month, in which Root scored his second international hundred in that format.

“It’s going to be a massive winter,” he said. “We all know how important the winter as a whole is, and how important that Sri Lanka series before Christmas is.

“The guys know there’s a World Cup around the corner, and if you put a few big performances in, it will stand you in good stead. There are a lot of individual incentives.

“As a team, we know exactly what we need to do, which is get on a roll and get some momentum together and get into that winning habit. We can then go to Australia for that tri-series in January and really kick on.

“It will be different in Sri Lanka, but the fundamentals of the game stay the same. Whether you face slightly more spin or seam, you’ve still got to rack up big scores and take ten wickets to win games of cricket.”

England’s main problem in one-day cricket recently has been their failure to post close to or above 300 in an innings consistently.

But they scored 294-7 in that clash at Headingley, giving some encouragement for Root and company.

“We take a lot of confidence from how we played at Headingley at the end of the ODIs, and we know that when we put big scores together, we are a very hard side to chase down,” added the inventive right-hander.

“That is going to be a key part of our development, making sure we consistently put together scores towards or beyond 300 and make it really hard for sides to come after us.

“If we can do that, we’ll be right up there.”

In all, prior to their World Cup opener at Melbourne on Valentine’s Day, England have at least 11, possibly 12, one-day internationals to play against Sri Lanka, Australia and India.