Morgan puts England on World Cup alert

Captain Eoin Morgan has put England’s one-day side on World Cup alert, with a year to establish themselves as the team to beat in 2019.

Next summer’s tournament on home soil presents a golden opportunity for England to secure a first major 50-over global success, but they go into tomorrow’s Gillette Series opener against Australia in Melbourne ranked fourth in the format.

That places them behind their hosts, as well as secondplaced India and leaders South Africa, and proves there is a distance yet to go if Morgan’s squad are to end a pursuit that began 43 years ago.

Australia will arrive next May as defending champions following their 2015 triumph.

As such, the next month provides a perfect test for a touring England side with designs on the silverware.

“This time next year, we need to be in a good enough space to be contenders for the World Cup,” he said on the eve of the five-match series.

“To be in that space you need to be setting or bucking trends or being able to adapt.

“We are very open-minded with the way we are going. The best way to address it is to be on the front foot.

“We are going in with the mantra that we always need to be on top of our game and testing the opposition the whole time. Australia present different challenges and hopefully we can adapt to them.”

One thing they do have in their favour is a relatively settled unit.

Ben Stokes is the exception, of course. The Durham all-rounder is an integral figure but remains unavailable as he awaits news from the Crown Prosecution Service as to whether he will be charged following a late-night incident in Bristol in September.

While England’s ill-fated Ashes campaign suffered from a surfeit of fast-medium right-arm seamers, Morgan can call on the quality wrist spin of Adil Rashid, the explosive pace of Mark Wood and the extra bounce afforded by Liam Plunkett. He even has the luxury of a left-armer, David Willey, among the reserves.

“It is great to see Woody back (from injury). When he has played he’s been brilliant, and Pudsey (Plunkett) has had a reasonable amount of time off so he’s quite fresh,” he said.

“You need an impact bowler and hopefully throughout the series they can produce impact spells.

“I think we made big strides. Adil, Liam and Moeen Ali, to a certain extent, have been brilliant... Chris Woakes has been Mr Reliable.

“Because scores have been so high in one-day cricket, the mentality has to be ‘OK I will go for some runs, but let’s take some wickets’. It is how you stem the flow.”