Eoin: I can help England win another World Cup
ENGLAND’S one-day team today begin the long march to next year’s World Cup — with captain Eoin Morgan unable to say whether he’ll be in India to defend the title won so thrillingly at Lord’s in 2019.
A trio of ODIs in the next six days against a Holland side ranked 14th in the world ought to provide a gentle starting point, yet Morgan has lost twice to the Dutch in Twenty20s — on his debut at Lord’s in 2009 and in Bangladesh in 2014.
But another upset now, even with Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root otherwise engaged in the Test series with New Zealand, would cause more than a ripple in the grachts that flow through Amsterdam’s centre. Morgan’s main focus will be on helping the new coach, the Australian Matthew Mott, to assemble a squad of players capable of lifting the T20 World Cup in Australia in the autumn, then triumphing in India in October 2023. It’s a competition, though, to which Morgan — now 35 — is reluctant to commit. ‘That’s a long way away,’ he said. ‘I need to get to the T20 World Cup first. I’m going to take it as it comes, managing my contribution, my body. Am I still contributing on and off the field, within the team? ‘I will be as honest as I have been with everybody since I started the captaincy. At the moment, I still feel like I can contribute to a World Cup win. That’s an important driver for me. I genuinely have the best interests of the team at heart.’ Morgan remains a hugely influential figure in the whiteball set-up, despite concerns that his batting is on the wane. But there are other senior players here to take up any slack, including Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali and Jason Roy. ‘One of the reasons for having our senior guys here is to grow that relationship with the coach,’ he said. As for Holland, they are a good enough team to have made 288 against West Indies earlier this month, and have not forgotten those T20 wins at Lord’s and Chittagong. ‘A third win over England would be fantastic, and something we’re looking for,’ said their captain, Pieter Seelaar.