Reaching T20 final would top the lot, insists Morgan
EOIN MORGAN believes England reaching the T20 World Cup final would rank among their best accomplishments after Jason Roy added his name to an extended list of absentees.
Roy will miss today’s semi-final against New Zealand because of a torn left calf as he joined Tymal Mills on the sidelines, with Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Sam Curran all unavailable for selection pre-tournament.
Morgan was reticent to discuss the identity of Roy’s replacement although Sam Billings has been tipped to come into the middle-order with Jonny Bairstow catapulted up from number four to open alongside the in-form Jos Buttler.
As they will be without several key figures, Morgan suggested they should not be heavily fancied in Abu Dhabi although he indicated that victory would be a significant moment for his team.
“I wouldn’t say strong favourites,” he said. “New Zealand have a full-strength squad, we’ve obviously been hampered with a lot of injuries throughout this tournament.
“I think of all the things we’ve done well throughout this tournament, probably the strongest point has been the resilience within our squad to be able to find a way to move forward.
“We’re playing really good cricket, the guys are extremely excited about the challenge against New Zealand and potentially the opportunity that might follow that.
“You might only get to the final and lose but getting to the final would be a hell of an achievement. We can’t wait.”
Dawid Malan, Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone are the other contenders to open the batting although Morgan was keeping his cards so close to his chest that he would not rule out replacing Roy with a bowling all-rounder.
In such a circumstance David Willey would be favoured to supplement an attack where Moeen and Livingstone have been sharing duties as England’s “fifth” bowler alongside three quicks and talismanic leg-spinner
Adil Rashid. “Within the group we’ve made a decision, I’m not willing to share that, unfortunately, but also the balance of the side will be determined on how the wicket looks and how we match-up against the Black Caps,” Morgan said.
“Replacing him with another bowler would mean that you have 28 genuine overs on the field and a lot of options. If you were to go with a batter, it would mean a like-for-like replacement.
“Depending if it’s a really good batting wicket, predicting if it’s going to be a really good batting wicket, we might need the extra bit of bowling.
“If it’s not, you might need the extra bit of batting.”