US: James Tredwell takes the place of former England ODI captain Alastair Cook in England's World Cup squad.

Former captain Alastair Cook has been left out of England's 15-man squad for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Cook and England have endured a dismal 2014 with a whitewash in the Ashes compounded by a poor showing in the World Twenty20 tournament and 5-2 a one-day international (ODI) defeat in Sri Lanka. Following the tour of Sri Lanka, Cook was relieved of his ODI captaincy duties to be replaced by Eoin Morgan and now the Essex batsman has been left out of the World Cup squad.

He will be replaced by Kent spin bowler James Tredwell who has backed Cook to return to form in the upcoming Test series against the West Indies in April. Cook remains England's Test captain but will have to watch on as the World Cup kicks off Down Under in February. Tredwell explained that the speculation over Cook's future had increased during the Sri Lankan tour.

Speaking to BBC Radio Kent, Tredwell said: "You get a bit of a feeling of what is going on and the press hype around the whole scenario was building as that series went on. It certainly came more to attention but you try not to look outside of the group.

"You are trying to do everything you can for the team and get results on the field. Whoever is in charge, you are trying to give them 100 per cent and that is certainly my thinking."

However, he was confident that the break would give Cook a time to relax and enjoy some time outside of cricket. A refreshed captain would provide England with the stimulus to get back on track in Test matches.

Morgan will be leading out England when they kick off their ICC Cricket World Cup campaign against hosts Australia on February 14th at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground. There will be a lot of English hopes pinned on the performances of Moeen Ali and Joe Root, who has impressed on the tour of Sri Lanka.

England's start at the World Cup could not be much tougher as they face both host in the opening two games. They then move on to Christchurch where they have somewhat of a derby match against Scotland before taking on Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Wellington and Adelaide respectively.

They round off their group matches against Afghanistan where they will be hoping to be in a solid position to qualify for the knockout phase.

England squad: Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler (wk), Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Eoin Morgan (capt), Joe Root, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes.