ONE-DAYERS AT A TIME
Morgan plays safe over World Cup role
EOIN MORGAN fired the starting gun on England’s World Cup title defence in India next year – but offered no guarantees he will be around to lead them into it.
The England captain has become used to questions about his future
given his intermittent struggles with the bat and more general ones with his body.
Yet speaking ahead of the first of three ODIs against Netherlands
– the first in the format for 11 months – he maintained he feels fit right now and intends to play here in all three games.
The caveat, added from painful experience as ever, was he was taking it on a “match-to-match basis”.
Asked about England’s World Cup title defence in 16 months, Morgan, 35, urged realism.
“That is a long way away. I need to get to the T20 one first,” he said of the
competition in Australia in just under four months.
“I’m going to take it as it comes, managing my contribution, my body.
“I will ask, am I still contributing on and off the field, within the team, and I will be as honest as I am with everybody since I started the captaincy.
“At the moment I still feel like I contribute, still feel like I can contribute to a World Cup win but I genuinely have the best interests of the team at heart and it has always been that way.”
If England feel in transition and missing some big guns like Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes in the first match for coach Matthew Mott (inset),
pity their hosts.
Netherlands are effectively taking on the World Cup champions with one hand tied behind their back.
Their semi-professional status means five of their top players – Roelof van der Merwe, Colin Ackermann, Timm van der Gugten, Paul van Meekeren and Fred Klaassen – are all on county duty.
It will make for a potentially difficult few days for them here.
Netherlands may have bloodied England’s noses twice before in their two T20 encounters but they have yet to land a blow in their three previous ODIs.
Skipper Pieter Seelaar insisted it was about trying to prolong shock tactics, which will be no easy task.
“A third win over England would be fantastic and something we’re looking for, but we’ve just got to try to be competitive over the three games,” he said.
The likelihood of them containing England’s powerful hitters at a ground where Sri Lanka plundered the short straight boundaries for 443-9 in 2006 seem unlikely.
Three-nil looks the minimum requirement if England are serious about a World Cup defence.