Trevor Bayliss has admitted that he is considering a change to the England batting order following the side's collapse in the final Test against South Africa this week.
The tourists emerged from the series 2-1 victors but lost the final match by 280 runs in Centurion after a second innings in which the Proteas claimed seven wickets in just over an hour.
Now head coach Bayliss is mulling whether to switch Alex Hales and Nick Compton, or push Joe Root up the order to third.
"I've said before I'd want two out of the top three to be of a more attacking style," Bayliss told The Guardian. "A simple fact is that if you haven't got those players, you have to make do with the players that you have.
"That's where having Cook and Compton there, we have two guys to build an innings around. But there are a few options. For example, Root is at No.4, he is our best player, does he go to No.3? That's something that we're going to have to discuss and obviously with Rooty as well.
"That might be a little further down the line but it is one of those options that we have to discuss. Hopefully back home in county cricket [somebody] comes out the woodwork in the early season and that gives us more options at the top of the order as well."
England now face South Africa in a series of T20 and ODI matches, before heading to the World Twenty20 in India in March.
Neil Wilkes
