Sunday Times (Sri Lanka)

Irate Morgan closes door on KP return chat

-

England's ODI captain Eoin Morgan was left distinctly unimpresse­d when instead of focusing on his side's drubbing of the Australian Prime Minister's XI, the media continued to focus on Kevin Pietersen's absence.

The controvers­ial batsman is playing in the Big Bash League for the Melbourne Stars, and has been giving various interviews where he's said he still hopes for an England recall, and Morgan was keen to put that idea to bed.

Morgan said in Canberra: "I think this is a good opportunit­y to clear things up given that Kevin has a lot of opportunit­y to talk in the media and get his point of view out there.

"I'm very happy with the group of players I have, I think this is the best group of players we have to drive the England team forward over the next two months in particular.

"Kevin's situation hasn't changed over the last year. It's been reiterated over months and days. It was reiterated before Christmas by the chairman of selectors and I'm reiteratin­g it again just to clear it up. Thank you."

He was then annoyed when another KP-related question posed whether the side would be better with him in it: "I think that's a terrible question.

"Kevin is not in the side, he won't be in the side for the foreseeabl­e future, so there's no point in answering that question."

Morgan was then asked if the current lineup was the best he'd been involved with, and he said: "Certainly in an England shirt that I've played with, yeah.

"The guys have unbelievab­le talent and when we perform to our potential we're a dangerous side."

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Sri Lanka