UNDER COOKED
Many of England’s one-day stars lack game time but Morgan says he’s banking on a five-star show
ENGLAND one-day skipper Eoin Morgan has backed his ringrusty squad to deliver against Pakistan in the five-match series that starts today.
Morgan has not played for more than a month after a hand injury and Jos Buttler is back after a sixweek lay-off with a broken thumb.
Ben Stokes (below) is another returning crock but the all-rounder will only bat after a calf injury and is not expected to bowl until the third game.
Stokes, and possibly Buttler, will be included in the Test squad that heads to Bangladesh and India and have another 15 months of almost nonstop cricket in all three forms ahead of them.
Morgan, who is not in the Test side, insists the enforced breaks from the game will do them more good than harm.
“It’s not necessarily a busy winter for me but in the lead-up to last year it was going to be busy so it almost presses the refresh button,” he said. “Jos is fully fit and will definitely play. He’s been out for six weeks but again that’s not a bad thing as there’s a chance he will be in all squads in the winter. “I’ve been catching for the last six days at high intensity and batting for the last week. I tried to get fit for Middlesex and it didn’t react that well only nine days after the break. That wasn’t the most intelligent thing, but with another 10 days on top of that it’s been really good.” Morgan has Mark Wood available at Southampton for his first one-dayer in nearly a year after ankle trouble. The Durham pace man is back to full fitness and got one over Joe Root in Saturday’s T20 finals day at Edgbaston when he consistently broke the 90mph barrier. Morgan (left) added: “Seeing guys come back in and bowl at 90-plus at one of the best batsmen in the world . . you would pay a lot of money to see that. “He’s another pace bowler who can bowl over 90. We’ve been lucky Liam Plunkett has been fit for an extended time and he’s proved one of our best bowlers when a lot of people said he was cracking on in age.
“You add Mark to that possible attack and it’s quite difficult.”