England Head Coach Peter Moores says skipper Alastair Cook is working “extremely hard” to return to form.
The 29-year-old has struggled to make an impact at the top of the order during the current seven-match one-day international tour of Sri Lanka.
Cook, opening alongside the attacking Moeen Ali, has a top score of 34 during the six matches to date.
The left-hander, confirmed as England’s captain for next year’s World Cup last week, was trapped lbw by Sachithra Senanayake with the third ball of his side’s reply to the hosts’ 292 for seven yesterday.
England fell 90 runs short, handing Sri Lanka an unassailable 4-2 lead in the rubber ahead of Tuesday’s finale at the R Premadasa Stadium.
Moores admits Cook, who also dropped centurion Kumar Sangakkara on 41 in Kandy yesterday, is doing all he can to get back to his best.
He told ecb.co.uk: “Alastair is our captain and nothing has changed on that front.
“He is fine. He is doing what he always does. Alastair has never not fronted up for anything, I don’t think.
“He is working extremely hard to get his own form right and also do the other thing that captains have to do, try and create a platform for people to play well. That won’t change.
“He will give everything he has got for England, like he always does. That is what has made him such a good performer over the past seven or eight years playing for his country.”
Despite another series defeat in this format, Moores has been happy with the progress of his squad.
Moeen, promoted to open on this tour, and Joe Root have a hundred and a half-century to their name in the half-a-dozen games, while James Taylor grabbed his opportunity with both hands by compiling fifties in successive innings.
Moores said: “We have had some real bonus performances by people.
“Moeen Ali at the top of the order and Joe Root played beautifully again yesterday, backing up his hundred.
“But we need to put the bowling, batting and fielding together at the same time. And we have got to get that right by the Tri-Series moving into that World Cup.
“I think we have made a lot of progress. How we played spin was an area we identified before we got here.
“We have scored at a good rate and I think James Taylor has helped that. Joe Root has played it very well. We have looked to be up with the rate all the time.
“We have lost wickets doing it at times and that is something we have got to tighten up on. But that batting unit is starting to look more aggressive.
“Knowing that we can score at a good rate all the way through creates platforms for Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler down the order.”
Without injured pacemen James Anderson and Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes has taken on added responsibility and leads the wicket-taking charts with 14.
On improvements with the ball, Moores added: “I still think there are areas bowling wise, towards the end of the innings we have done some really good things, but I think we could do that simpler.
“We are getting better all the time. We have seen Chris Woakes and Chris Jordan develop in that area quite a bit.
“It was good to see us bowl so well up front. We hadn’t really done that as well on this trip until yesterday.”
Meanwhile, the International Cricket Council has fined Sangakkara 15 per cent of his match fee from yesterday’s game.
The left-hander, who struck a run-a-ball 112 on his home ground for the final time, was penalised for "showing dissent at an umpire's decision".
The disagreement came at the start of 34th over when the veteran batsman disputed umpire Bruce Oxenford's decision not to sanction a batting powerplay, with a further exchange two deliveries later.