Eoin: We’ll just try to ‘learn the hard way’
ENGLAND captain Eoin Morgan told his side to learn some tough lessons after India levelled the Twenty20 series with a comprehensive seven-wicket win.
The teams are tied at 1-1 after Virat Kohli saw his side past their target of 165 with an unbeaten 73, building on a thrilling half-century from debutant Ishan Kishan.
Morgan has billed this fivematch contest as a chance for England to improve their play in Indian conditions, with their hosts also staging this year’s T20 World Cup. And, while the captain would rather his side do that while stringing wins together, he is also looking for value in defeat.
England will ultimately reflect they were tied up too efficiently in the last five overs of their innings in Ahmedabad, scoring just 35 for the loss of two wickets, and failed to shut down the boundaries with ball in hand. Between them Tom Curran, Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes served up 5.5 overs at an eye-watering cost of 81 runs.
‘The pitch played quite slow and quite low. It was one that probably does expose our weakness,’ Morgan admitted in a candid postmatch assessment.
‘This took us out of our comfort zone. It was really a typical Indian wicket, like we would play in an IPL game. We (England) don’t play on a lot of low, slow wickets and the more we do, the better. To become better in these conditions, the only way you do that is by playing and making mistakes.
‘You do tend to learn quicker if you’re winning and confident and everything’s running reasonably smoothly, but if we have to learn the hard way then we are still going through that process.
‘We’re trying to learn game on game so that when it comes to the World Cup here in seven months’ time we can be best prepared and know more about ourselves.’
The day was not without positives for Morgan and his side. Opener Jason Roy followed up Friday’s 49 with another fine knock of 46, banishing concerns over his form at the back end of last year, while Sam Curran and Jofra Archer both turned in accomplished spells their fellow seamers could learn from.