GO FOR JUGULAR
This is as big as the Ashes, says Morgan
THERE can be no easing off now. No complacency even though top spot is already secured and the Champions Trophy has opened up to provide what looks like a winnable semi- final against Sri Lanka or Pakistan.
No match against Australia could ever be described as a dead rubber for England. Certainly not when they can eliminate them with victory in their last group game at Edgbaston today.
It would be tempting, with England playing at their favourite ground against an Australia side without any win here since 2001, to callall this a perfect storm were it not for the risk sk of tempting fate e into deliveringg another deluge.
Australia are on the brink after having their first two games washed out, and the players are inn the grip of a payay dispute that has started to become come very ugly. Eoin Morgan knows how close hishi sideid are to completing the transformation from World Cup embarrassments to Champions Trophy winners two years before they were expected to peak.
‘I’ve never played in the Ashes — and there are others like me in the changing room — so a game like this is the closest we’ll get,’ he said. ‘Australia’s tournament is on the line, whereas we are already through. Now we can emphasise our positive game.
‘We’re pretty confident at the moment and, with the game we’ve got, if we produce somewhere near our best in this tournament we’ll certainly contend.’
Morgan the captain has been transformed in the two years since the World Cup. There is no doubt he is the most powerful figure in this limited- overs setup. It was Morgan, for instance, who was behind the surprise omission of Adil Rashid at The Oval and his more surprising return in Cardiff. It was Morgan who wanted Steven Finn to replace the injured Chris Woakes in the squad and, significantly, it is the captain who has insisted on Jason Roy’s continued selection.
The woefully out- of- touch Surrey opener plays today in what is set to be an unchanged team.
The captain who risked his position by refusing to travel to Bangladesh is truly in commandmand now.now ‘I don’t think you’re ever in total contrcontrol but certainly I ththink people back mmy views more nnow than when I hhad no games uunder my belt,’ he explained. ‘ I t’s about building trust.’ Only when MMorgan was ququestioned on wwhyh he has chanchanged the habit of a cricketingcri lifetime in this totournament and started to sing the national anthem before play was Mr Cool in any way flustered.
Can you tell us why you’ve been singing the anthem? Morgan was asked. ‘No,’ he replied. You can’t tell us? ‘No, I don’t want to.’ But have you made a conscious decision to . . . ‘I just felt like it.’ And then he was gone.
Frankly, this most patriotic and diverse of all English crowds probably would not care if England’s Irish captain sang Danny
Boy before each game if he can lead them to victory in the final.
It is a scenario that is becoming increasingly possible. ENGLAND (probable): J Roy, A Hales, J Root, E Morgan (capt), B Stokes, J Buttler (wkt), M Ali, A Rashid, L Plunkett, M Wood, J Ball. AUSTRALIA (probable): D Warner, A Finch, S Smith (capt), C Lynn, G Maxwell, T Head, M Wade (wkt), M Starc, J Hastings, P Cummins, J Hazlewood.
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