Giles has proved to be an effective one-day bowler

"Today again we should have been pushing on to 240 and that would have kept us in the game."

He was proud, however, of the fighting spirit showed by his team, who fought back from 3-1 down in India to share the series 3-3, and recovered from 2-0 down against the Kiwis to take the best-of-five contest to the deciding match.

And Hussain also identified increased competition for places as another reason for optimism in the future.

"We've batted well in the first 15, we've fielded well at times, we've stuck together and we've bowled really well as a unit - Ashley Giles' bowling has come on.

"A few months ago, you'd look around when someone was injured and say 'Right, who can we bring in?' Now there are people you can bring in. There's a lot of positives to come out of the last two or three months."

Coach Duncan Fletcher described the series in India and New Zealand as "pretty fruitful" and there are unlikely to be many changes to England's squad ahead of the World Cup.

"We've got young guys out here in Collingwood, Shah and Flintoff - how many one-day games have they played on a consistent basis? It's nice to see they are willing to learn and are learning."

He added: "Hopefully we can keep the same squad together now, although there might be a couple of changes.

"There is plenty of one-day cricket left between now and the World Cup - we've got the summer matches and then the Ashes one-dayers to come."