THE WHITE PATH
Morgan urges fringe players to grab chance to show their worth
EOIN MORGAN has urged England’s fringe players to give him a selection headache for the winter white-ball squads and the WorldT20 next year.
England’s skipper goes into the first of three T20s against Pakistan at Old Trafford tonight without some of his biggest guns.
But he has thrown down a gauntlet to his reserves to grab their opportunity to shine not in only next month’s limited overs action against Australia but the winter and beyond.
“Opportunities like this don’t come around very often when we have our squad at full strength,” he said.
“So it is another opportunity for guys who would potentially sit outside that 15 to try to present their best case moving forward for winter tours and the World Cup next year.”
With all-rounder Ben Stokes in New Zealand on compassionate leave, Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer rested and Jason Roy yesterday ruled out injured with a side strain, there are some big boots to fill.
Not least against a Pakistan side led by Babar Azam, who are ranked fourth best in the world and certainly capable of beating anyone on their day. Dawid Malan or Tom Banton could fill in for Roy alongside Jonny Bairstow at least until the Australia matches when Roy hopes to be back.
Sam Billings should earn further chances to push his claims in the middle order. The postponement of this year’s T20 World Cup in Australia – originally scheduled for October and November – has nudged the door open for late darters into Morgan’s plans.
And Morgan believes the wait could end up strengthening his hand. “I hope so. I think given a lot of the guys that are in the squad at the moment are young guys coming through and, when you’re at that stage of development in your career, six to eight to 12 months is actually quite a considerable amount of time,” he said.
“The big challenge for those guys is getting an opportunity to go away and play between now and then in the winter.
“The IPL is going ahead, the Big Bash is going ahead, we have a long tour to India, which actually frees up guys to play a full Big Bash and make a case for selection in the New Year.
“So trying to expose them to a lot more white-ball cricket can accelerate their development as opposed to sitting at home and wondering what next summer might look like for us.”
Pakistan skipper Babar conceded it will be difficult switching from red ball to white-ball cricket against one of the best T20 teams in the world.
“We have only got one day for practice but I hope we will come up with a good performance,” he said.
“T20 specific players were doing practice, though, and we are positive about the series.”