As Root cruises along, Morgan can’t buy a run
The tale of england’s two captains is a contrasting one this summer, with Joe Root taking a traditional approach to playing regularly in all three formats and eoin Morgan the very epitome of the modern ‘franchise’ player.
It is easy to be negative about Root’s habit of failing to convert half centuries into three-figure scores, as he did again in england’s thumping victory at Bristol y yesterday, but I would rather look at h how amazingly consistent he has b become as a run-scorer.
This is not an easy game but Test captain Root makes it look incredibly simple and, with the possible exception of the last tour to Australia, I can’t remember him ever going through a anything resembling a lean patch.
Yes, he would like to convert more s starts and there have been times, p particularly in Test cricket, when he has changed the tempo of his innings after going beyond 50 and seemed in a rush to get to a hundred.
Instead of taking a riskier option he needs to hold back a bit, give the bowler a couple of overs and tell himself that his century will come soon enough without reaching for it.
That was not the case against West Indies in the third one-day international because Root got a good ball from Miguel Cummins on 84 that he played around for his 12th score of 50-plus in 24 international innings this summer.
The bottom line is that it will come, and Root will score hundred after hundred in the way he is scoring 50 after 50 in virtually every innings. Root stays in the rhythm of batting because he plays all the time, whereas Morgan, out first ball yesterday, goes to the other extreme and is unusual among batsmen in that he doesn’t play much cricket at all. Morgan has shown that he can have long periods off and still go out and score runs, usually when people are doubting him. earlier this season he was prolific and he has made three one-day centuries this year, but they came at a time when he was playing more often. Since the Champions Trophy and before this series, when he has only really been playing Twenty20 cricket, Morgan seems to have lost his rhythm and it is hard to regain that in the shortest form of the game. The england one-day captain hasn’t played a first- class match since July 2015 and maybe that has played a part in him being such a feast-or-famine batsman — either in superlative form or, as now, barely scoring a run. But Morgan (left) is not a worrier. he has enormous self-belief and firmly believes his methods work for him. So, it would not surprise me in the least if he snapped out of this barren run and suddenly scored a hundred in the fourth game at The Oval on Wednesday. he’s unique like that.