THE EYE OF THE TIGER
Morgan insists England are peaking at the right time
EOIN MORGAN has told his England players they need a savvy start to their T20 World Cup before peaking at the business end – just like they did in their 2019 triumph.
England will not need to win all five of their matches to reach the semifinals, but they would rather be building a head of steam as the tournament goes on rather than running out of it.
Their blips in the 50-over glory of two years ago came against Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia but they finished strongly to reach the final off the back of three successive victories.
And while skipper Morgan clearly wants to get off to a winning start against the Windies today, he knows that when you win is more important than how many you win.
“We’re all excited and we’ve played some of our best-ever cricket in T20 World Cups,” said Morgan. “We know at the beginning of a tournament, you need to be the smartest, the most experienced, the most adaptable side in order to do well in the early stages. We know how gruelling World Cups can be. How hard they can be to go through to latter stages and how gruelling groupstage games are.
“Within our squad we have the ability to manage that so guys are excited at the challenge. There’s a reason we have been considered contenders for this tournament through our performance.”
It has been five long years since the T20 World Cup has been up for grabs but England’s team has evolved rather than gone through wholesale changes.
And Morgan reckons that familiarity, together with the shared pain of losing that 2016 final against today’s opponents for seven of the current squad, will help them in their quest for success. He added: “Some of the biggest disappointments in anyone’s career are more learnings than scars.
“If there were scars from 2016 we would have lost a lot of players who wouldn’t have progressed like they have done over the last four or five years.”
Morgan reckons the global demand for English players shows just why his side have what it takes. He has just skippered a side to the final of the IPL in Dubai, while Moeen Ali played a starring role for champions Chennai
Super Kings. “You see guys going to the Big Bash and the IPL, and going there with ambitions of being the best in the tournament,” said Morgan (right), who has a big decision to make on Dawid Malan at No.3 and whether to include in-form Moeen, who also provides useful spin.
Malan remains the No.1 T20 batsman in the world but he has struggled of late and needs a big score.
England will take a knee against the Windies in support of Black Lives Matter but not against other sides.
Morgan said: “Unfortunately, during this tournament, we are not allowed to do our moment of unity.
“We’ll join the West Indies in taking a knee to show our support in the fight against racism.”