JOE Root is confident England can compete 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 summer series against Sri Lanka and India, with the majority of pundits now viewing them as outsiders for the 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 the Pool A opener against the Aussies at Melbourne on February 14.

England at least head into the winter on the back of a win over India in the summer's final ODI by 41 runs at Headingley last month, in which Root scored a century.

"We all know how important the winter as a whole is, and how important that Sri Lanka series before Christmas is," he said.

"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.

"As a team, we know exactly what we need to do, which 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."

England's main problem in one-day cricket has been their failure to post 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, and we know that when we put big scores together, we are a very hard side to chase down," he added.

"That is going to be a key part of our development, making sure we consistently put together scores towards or beyond 300. If we can do that, we'll be right up there."