Despite Test ambitions, Morgan says ‘IPL best thing for him’
PERTH: Rarely does the captain of a country openly declare his affinity for the Indian Premier League (IPL) over national ambitions.
England’s latest one-day captain Eoin Morgan is an exception. Without hesitation, he confirmed his desire. “Yeah, I will be in the IPL auction this year and I can confirm that hopefully I will be picked,” said the Ireland-born player.
With an eye on turning out in whites again, Morgan had opted out of last year’s IPL, but the lefthander’s claim for a Test place was ignored for the rest of the summer.
Unwilling to wait for a call-up to the Test side, Morgan chose the IPL this season. He was not embarrassed to confess that his Test ambitions had tapered down.
“I think Test ambitions have been scaled down a bit probably since the start of our summer. I suppose the opportunity I gave myself in missing the IPL last year and potential carrot of the end of the road was… I think it was three positions available at the start of our summer, and I didn’t manage to get any of them. So since then it has been scaled down a bit. The ambition still is to play Test cricket, absolutely, but given where I’m at the moment, I think the IPL is the best thing for me.”
T20 cricket is where innovation takes birth. There aren’t too many English players who travel the globe to participate in the T20 leagues that have sprung up.
Morgan, hence, called on his teammates to accept offers to play in global T20 leagues. “It’s an opportunity to learn not only for myself but for other English cricketers, I think they should take it with both hands,” Morgan, who has entered the auction with a base price of R15000000, claimed.
“Death bowling is a concern for a lot of teams. If our guys have the opportunity, they could come and hone their skills (at the IPL) that they wouldn’t normally get to do.”