England must build on ODI series win against Sri Lanka: Cook

England captain Alastair Cook has said that the team must build on their success after securing a 3-2 ODI series win over Sri Lanka.

"We are a long way off the level we want to be at. The things we talked about as a team at the beginning of the series are going to take time to work out, but this is a step in the right direction," The BBC quoted Cook, as saying.

The series was Cook's first on home soil after his appointment as captain of the one-day side, and the 26-year-old praised his team's character after they stood firm to hold off Sri Lanka's fightback in the final match.

"That's the first time I've had a really tight scenario in my eight games as one-day captain, and I thought we handled it well," he said.

"I think the most pleasing aspect is the way we fought back from 2-1 down in the series. Everyone was writing us off, and we've played well in these past two games in all conditions on spinning wickets and flat wickets," he added.