Eoin wants strongest teams

EOIN Morgan believes a significant hurdle for England to overcome between now and next year’s T20 World Cup will be finding ways to ensure they are at full-strength as often as possible in order to give clarity to players’ roles.

A left side strain has ruled Jason Roy out of the T20 series against Pakistan, which starts at Emirates Old Trafford today, while several other 50-over World Cup winners are absent because of their Test commitments. The coronavirus pandemic has so far led to England naming separate red and white-ball squads in a revamped summer calendar, and that policy may continue into the winter as players’ workloads are also taken into consideration.

Morgan can see the upshot of giving fringe contenders such as Tom Banton and Dawid Malan an opportunity to advance their claims for a squad place in next year’s global event in India.

But he is adamant that in order to give themselves the best chance of completing a limited-overs World

Cup double, England must do their utmost to attempt to select firstchoice stars such as Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer regularly.

Morgan would not be drawn on who would replace Roy for the first of three matches against Pakistan but both firecracker Banton and the ever-reliable Malan could now feature in a top-three also containing Jonny Bairstow.

England face Australia in three T20s and three one-day internationals between September 4 and September 16 and Morgan is hopeful of being able to welcome back the Surrey opener.