KOHL TO ARMS Eoin says attack’s only way to win
Although Morgan is not involved with the five-day side, the mauling Alastair Cook’s men received from Virat Kohli and his team-mates has left scars that need to be healed. England have not won a one-day series in India since David Gower was captain back in 1984-85. Morgan, 30, denied the Test results give his side any extra incentive to put on a better display in the three-match one-day series starting today in Pune. But the Middlesex man does believe the limited-overs team’s attacking attitude can help those involved in both formats to forget the Test debacle. He said: “Regardless of how they did, the guys always look forward to how we play our 50-over and T20 game. “It’s a nice way to play cricket regardless – win, lose or draw. “Going out with that attitude you had as a kid and all you wanted to do was play cricket all week. You’d look out of the window and hope the sun was shining. That sort of attitude is important.” But India skipper Kohli (below) reckons England are in danger of sometimes being too attacking and almost one-dimensional. Batting legend Kohli took over the one-day and Twenty20 captaincy for India last week after the resignation of World Cup-winner MS Dhoni, though the wicketkeeper is still a member of the team. Kohli said: “They seem to be quite fearless, which is always a good thing in the shorter format of the game. “But at the same time, I’ve always felt that to be a consistent performer in the ODI format, you need to understand strike rotation as well. “You can’t just go out there with one sort of momentum. “That is something we will look to counter, see if they lose a few early wickets, what are the plans they come up with.” Morgan added: “I wouldn’t say it’s fearless, I just like to think we play in our own way. “The current group of players we have are very outgoing, very expansive and also very explosive. “They do what they say they’re going to do and stick to their natural game, which is to be quite aggressive.” That approach has certainly worked more often than not in the two years since Morgan took over the one-day reins from Cook. After presiding over yet another World Cup debacle in Australia in 2015, Morgan has led a group of firebrand young batsmen like Alex Hales, Jason Roy and Jos Buttler, whose first thought is to smash the ball out of the ground. But after opting out of the one-dayers in Bangladesh in October along with Hales due to security fears, he is under pressure to convince people he is still worth his place in the side as a batsman. He has recorded only two fifties in his last 16 one-day innings and started this tour badly, making only three runs in two warm-up innings last week in Mumbai. Sam Billings and Jonny Bairstow top-scored in those matches against India A but neither is expected to play today with Hales and Morgan to return. Yorkshire paceman Liam Plunkett has recovered from his calf injury and is expected to play.