Cricket: England rally around captain Cook and hope to salvage some pride

PERTH (AFP) - England will be battling to avoid another series whitewash in the fourth one-day game against Australia on Friday, and are rallying round their beleaguered captain.

Australia triumphed by seven wickets with 10 overs to spare in the third one-day international in Sydney on Sunday to sweep the series 3-0, with Alastair Cook admitting for the first time he will reconsider his captaincy after the weekend's final 50-overs match in Adelaide.

But England spinner James Tredwell says the team who also lost the Ashes 0-5 still has some fight left in them and supports Cook.

"We've spoken a lot about pushing back and giving them a bit of their medicine," Tredwell said. "We're trying to be really honest with ourselves. We understand that we've not been good enough on this tour.

"It's now looking forward to how we improve that and look forward to the upcoming games, not only in this series, but the rest of this year going in towards the World Cup next year."

Tredwell underlined that the team had urged Cook to remain at the helm despite his doubts. "We were all down after the last game ... Alastair more than most," Tredwell said.

"As captain, you do tend to take a lot of that on yourself. But we've had a really good chat and he was at the forefront of that, and we want him to take charge going forward."

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