NO MOR COCK-UPS
Eoin’s threat to battered attack
EOIN MORGAN has warned the bowlers humbled by Scotland he will not tolerate a repeat against Australia today.
The England skipper is set to keep faith with the fiveman attack which leaked a record-breaking 371 against Scotland in Edinburgh on Sunday.
That means David Willey, Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali will get the chance to make amends at the Kia Oval despite Tom Curran pushing hard for a place on his home ground.
“It is never a good thing when you lose but you have to take the learning process from it,” Morgan said ahead of the opener in the five-game series.
Concern
“It is no good losing the lesson and the game. Our bowlers missed their lengths and lines a little bit and with the bat we didn’t play as good cricket as we would have liked. We were simply off our game on a small ground.
“But is it a concern? On a really flat wicket on a small ground, no. If it had been at The Oval, yes it would be. And if it happens twice or three times in this series, yes we would (be concerned).”
With less than 12 months to go before the start of a home World Cup, Morgan needs a return to form from a bowling unit that is currently without Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes.
And although the Aussies are missing their two best batsmen in Steve Smith and David Warner, plus injured fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, Morgan admits they will still make life difficult.
He said: “I’m expecting a tough series. Every time we have played against Australia they have played tough, hard cricket so we will expect that.
“And for all that people have talked about weakened sides, what they fail to realise is that it is the opportunity for guys coming through.
“With one eye on the World Cup next year, you have a lot of young hungry guys who probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity six months ago when they were playing domestic cricket and wondering how they were going to get into the team.
“This is now their opportunity to make their mark, and we are very aware of that.”
Australia and England will exchange public handshakes before today’s match after a request by new visiting captain Tim Paine, who took over from Smith in March.
The England skipper said he was happy to go along with Paine’s request if it helped the sport’s image following the ball-tampering scandal earlier this year.
Morgan added: “I’m happy with that. It doesn’t bother me.
“They are trying to turn around the image of the game in their country and we are all for that. We want cricket to be as popular as it can be.” AUSTRALIA (probable):