Morgan’s eyes firmly on big prize
Old country just a stepping stone as England captain targets World Cup
FORTY-EIGHT days separated Eoin Morgan’s last one-day international for Ireland and his first for England – and the captain of his adopted country has come back to haunt his old colleagues on more than one occasion in the 10 years since his switch.
Morgan hit an unbeaten 84 down in South Africa on April 6, 2009 to help Ireland to victory against Canada and put them well on their way to qualifying for the 2011 World Cup. At Bristol on May 24, he had changed green for blue and also finished with a not out, his two runs helping England get over the line against the West Indies.
Everybody knew the time would come when he would face Ireland, but amazingly he was not even playing when he struck a big blow at Stormont at the end of the 2009 season. Ireland were chasing a mere 116 off 20 overs to win a 50-over match reduced by rain and with nine needed off two balls, Trent Johnston clubbed a mighty blow. It was going for six and it took spectators a little while to realise that the substitute fielder who leapt in the air and parried the ball back into play was Morgan. He saved four runs and England won.
He was not there in Bangalore when Ireland pulled off an unthinkable comeback to beat England at that 2011 World Cup, having missed the start of the tournament with a broken finger. He soon had revenge though. Now England captain he hit 59 as his side won another rain-hit match in Dublin that July.
Not satisfied with that in 2013 he hit 124 not out in Malahide, where his side face Ireland again on Friday, to kill off thoughts of another shock after England slumped to 48-4. For good measure he topscored at Lord’s two years ago in another win over the upstarts.
England are the favourites to win the ODI World Cup which they are hosting and which starts next month. Friday’s trip to The Village is the first in a series of warm-ups as Morgan, now 32 and playing as well as ever, attempts to lead his men to a first-ever global triumph in the 50-over format.
His team had begun the 2017 Champions Trophy as favourites at home, only to retreat into their shells during the semi-final against Pakistan, when they were spooked by a sluggish pitch.
For Morgan and head coach Trevor Bayliss, one of the biggest challenges has been to get his side used to the idea that they are no
longer the hunters but the hunted.
Since England crashed out of the 2015 World Cup, they have won 53 of their 77 ODIs. At home, it has been 30 wins out of 40. They have twice broken the world-record total along the way. It has been a thrilling ride.
‘We’ve talked about being favourites a lot since the Champions Trophy,’ said Morgan. ‘We went into that tournament and only got to the semi-finals and we’ve spoken about that. We’ve tried to replicate being favourites ever since, which we have been in every series. The guys are relaxed, they’re used to the fact they’re favourites. It’s more a case now of what needs to be done to prepare well. ‘After that 2017 semifinal, the chat in the dressing room was a combination of two things,’ he said. ‘Were we beaten by the better side and were we playing on a wicket that suited us?
‘Since then we’ve played on similar wickets — at Sydney and Wellington — and in both we played better the second time round. Our style has evolved over the last number of years from extremely aggressive to positive, aggressive smart cricket. I’m very excited.’
For Ireland, having failed to qualify for the World Cup, this year is about new players stepping forward. Morgan’s Middlesex teammate Tim Murtagh is still the premier bowler at 37 – and he top scored in the first innings of the Test loss to Afghanistan from number 11.
The inter-provincial series moved to La Manga this week where among the pretenders was Mark Adair (23), who in two innings hit 75 from a combined 27 balls. Increasing the depth of talent will help Ireland but it could well be that England’s Irish captain will have the final word again in Friday’s ODI in Malahide.