Morgan will stick with coded signs

There was nothing coded about eoin Morgan’s defence of england’s controversial experiment of passing on information to the captain on the field by displaying messages.

‘It’s hundred per cent within the spirit of the game,’ said Morgan as he prepared to conduct another experiment today by leading a below- strength england in the first of three 50-over matches that complete this South African tour.

‘There’s nothing untoward about it. It’s about maximising information and measuring it against coaches’ recommendations and data. It was actually nice to know it backed up the majority of the decisions we were making on the field.’

It did not appear to need a code to identify the former england captain who Morgan was referring to when he was asked what he thought of criticism of analyst Nathan Leamon holding up numbers and letters during the 3-0 Twenty20 series win. It has only really been Michael Vaughan who has spoken out against the move.

‘All captains are different,’ said Morgan. ‘You get those who enjoy the title, the power and accolades. Then you have other captains who continue to be pushed and want to learn for the benefit of the team. This is a system we want to use to take out a little bit of the emotion of decision-making in the field.’

So Leamon will carry on posting his messages today at Newlands.

Morgan added that this is the start of the build-up to england’s defence of the 50-over World Cup in India in 2023 — even though priority will be given to Twenty20 cricket for the next two years.

Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Sam Curran have been allowed to go home. Opportunity knocks for those who missed out on the short-form matches, such as Mark Wood, Sam Billings and, probably, Moeen Ali.

Perhaps there will be chances, too, for the pace bowling promise of Olly Stone and reece Topley even though Morgan wants to back players and will be loath to change the side once it has been chosen today.

‘One-day series are shortened to three games now, so to make the most of them we’ll try to give guys a run in the side,’ said Morgan.

SOUTH AFRICA (probable): De Kock (capt & wkt), J Malan, Bavuma, Van der Dussen, Miller, Klaasen, Phehlukwayo, Linde, B Hendricks, Ngidi, Shamsi. ENGLAND (probable): Roy, Bairstow, Root, Morgan (capt), Buttler (wkt), Billings, Moeen, Woakes, Rashid, Wood, Stone.