Morgan concerns grow after IPL final failure for Kolkata
Captain remains out of form ahead of T20 World Cup is first English player to win title as Chennai triumph
Eoin Morgan: Kolkata Knight Riders’ very own Mike Brearley? It was, to be sure, a nice idea that Morgan, in spite of his own travails with the bat, could lead Kolkata to the Indian Premier League title.
Alas, the notion ran into the cold reality of Chennai Super Kings’ 27-run victory in Dubai. This further added to the legacy of Morgan’s opposing number MS Dhoni, who has now led Chennai to four IPL titles, to go with a Twenty20 and one-day international World Cup apiece. In Dhoni’s side was Moeen Ali, who further vindicated Chennai’s signing him for £690,000 by plundering an undefeated 37 from 20 balls to become the first Englishman to win the IPL final.
“It feels amazing, can’t describe it,” Moeen said. “I feel like it’s such a grounded and humble team, and great to be a part of.”
Defeat for Kolkata already looked likely when Morgan, their captain, walked out at No5, with KKR needing 96 from 8.3 overs. But Morgan never gave any suggestion that he could change the complexion of the match.
In his first seven balls, Morgan was bereft of timing, managing only four singles as Kolkata’s task moved from outlandish to impossible. From his eighth delivery, Morgan finally relocated a scintilla of timing, flicking Josh Hazlewood to the leg-side boundary. Alas, his shot was intercepted by a fine catch just inside the ropes from Deepak Chahar: the sort of terrific fielding that batsmen bereft of form often lament.
So ended an abject season for Morgan. In 17 matches for Kolkata – spread between the first leg of the IPL, before Covid-19 led to the remainder being postponed, and the second portion played out in the past month – he mustered only 133 runs at an average of 11.08. The only thing worse than a batsman scoring few runs in T20 is scoring them slowly; Morgan has done this, too, scoring at fewer than a run a ball. It is not only hindsight to suggest that there was a strong case for Morgan dropping himself in the latter stages of the competition.
For Morgan personally, it will be a costly failure. Had Kolkata won the title, to follow his ODI World Cup win in 2019, Morgan would have had strong appeal for a side in next year’s IPL auction – a “mega auction”, with almost all players entering. Instead, this IPL campaign has added to his poor record in the competition.
Morgan has now played 83 IPL matches, spread over 11 years. The upshot has been 1,405 runs at an average of 22.7, with a middling strike rate of 123. These figures are worse than the average for a player batting at the same time in the IPL, Cricviz finds.
Overseas players are meant to add significant value to their IPL teams; over his career, Morgan has actually done the opposite. Throughout his IPL career his single biggest problem has been his difficulties against high-class spin in Asian conditions, which his excellence against pace at the death has not quite been able to overcome.
England will be little concerned over Morgan’s diminished appeal in the next IPL auction, but altogether more worried about what his displays mean for their own T20 World Cup prospects. Morgan will join up with the side with his form comfortably the weakest of any squad member. Should Morgan’s slump continue during the World Cup, there is a very real chance that the coming weeks will be his last in an England shirt. Through his unashamed embrace of the short formats and the belligerent style that they demand he has been, as Jos Buttler – his probable successor – has put it, “revolutionary”.
And yet, while we could well be in the Last Days of Morgan, we could also be about to witness another remarkable development in his career. Morgan has always been a cricketer prone to wildly oscillating form. There has never really been rhyme or reason to how he has turned his funks around; it is only a year since he was in the best T20 run of his life. For all Morgan’s value as a captain, all the deep reservoir of goodwill he has built up, he will need to rediscover some of this misplaced rhythm rapidly for the health of his captaincy and his team.