We must go out to hunt down the opposition
Aggression is the way to win Trophy, says Morgan
EOIN MORGAN has told his England team they must stay true to their attacking instincts if they are to have any hope of winning the Champions Trophy.
England’s one-day captain has overseen a stunning turnaround in his side’s 50-over form in the past two years based largely on an ultra-aggressive batting approach.
That saw England rack up a world record one-day score of 444-7 against Pakistan at Trent Bridge last summer and is one of the chief reasons why they will enter next month’s Champions Trophy not just as hosts, but favourites.
With Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes missing for the recent two-match series against Ireland, England were slightly more circumspect during last Sunday’s second ODI at Lord’s.
Morgan admits his team misread the pitch on the day as they made 328 batting first.
That total was still good enough to win the match by 85 runs, but it was down on what has been expected of a side that have smashed eight 350-plus scores since the last World Cup in 2015, including two in excess of 400.
“Everything I’ve emphasised and will continue to in the lead up to the Champions Trophy is that if we want to win the tournament then the game we have to play is the positive one, otherwise we can’t win it,” said Morgan.
“There is no point coming second or third or fourth, we want to win the tournament and the World Cup in 2019, and we know what we can do.”
That means England, eyeing a first major 50-over title, will look to attack relentlessly with the bat when they face Australia and New Zealand – the finalists from the 2015 World Cup – in their final two group matches in the Champions Trophy.
“Going into those games in previous years, if New Zealand or Australia had scored 350 we would have had no chance of chasing it down; we didn’t have the game for it,” said Morgan.
“Going into the tournament now with the confidence of knowing we can produce performances like that sets us up to keep being bold.
“I think everybody is aware of the capabilities that we do have, and I think that creates a different challenge when playing against us.
“Everybody enjoys bowling first now and if you lose the toss and bat you’re not sure what a good total is, and we’re becoming one of those sides that you don’t know how good a score is because of how deep we bat.”