Media reports suggest Andrew Strauss will be appointed England’s director of cricket within days, and his first task will be to decide on the future of coach Peter Moores.

According to The Telegraph, Moores is close to the exit after failing to meet the minimum demand set by Colin Graves, the incoming chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, of winning the series in the West Indies. It may be one poor return too far for Moores, who also presided over a disastrous World Cup.

A decision on the coach will have to be made quickly, with the two-Test series against New Zealand due to start at Lord’s on May 21.

Moores will not be optimistic about his chances of surviving the chop, after Strauss criticised his methods in his autobiography last year.

In the book, Strauss said that Moores, in his first stint as coach of England, suffocated the players with too much information and energy.

‘What is required at the highest level is a coach who is able to calm players down, allowing them to play to their strengths – Moores’s philosophy that energy cannot be saved, it can only be created, ran contrary to that,’ Strauss wrote in his book, Driving Ambition.

The captain, Alastair Cook, has a much better relationship with Strauss with whom he opened the batting for England before the latter retired in 2012.

Cook regained some form in England’s tour of the West Indies, registering his first century for nearly two years in the final Test in Barbados.

The reality remains that there is no reliable alternative within the team who has the necessary experience to take over from Cook before England take on Australia this summer.

For Moores it is different, with many coaches around the world attracted to a highly lucrative job.

South Australian Jason Gillespie, the director of cricket at Yorkshire, will be favourite to coach England if Moores is sacked.