With the T20 World Cup 2021 attaining great importance in the last couple of seasons, England’s form in the 50-over version hasn’t been that consistent, with the team losing four of their nine matches, including defeats to South Africa, Ireland and Australia since winning the 2019 World Cup.
Thus, it wasn’t a surprise when skipper Eoin Morgan said the focus during the three-match series against India, starting Tuesday (March 23), will be to achieve a level of consistency that helped them lift their maiden ODI World Cup trophy two years back. Besides series honours against a longstanding rival, the ICC Super League points will also be up for grabs in Pune.
The level of consistency we’ve shown in 50-over cricket since the WC win has been average. Obviously, we haven’t had our strongest team together for quite some time since then given the amount of cricket we’ve played. So if we can show a level of consistency in our performance, it would be a huge step forward. And on top of that, grow our squad. We see guys coming back in… taking opportunities that don’t come up that often would give us a lot of confidence moving forward.
Morgan told the press before the first ODI.
Trying to envisage where 50-over cricket will be in three years time is quite difficult. So the challenge for us is always trying to explore and push the limits as much as we can given the conditions. In conditions that are a little bit alien to us, like in India, it’s nice to get out of your comfort zone and learn more about your team and your players, to make mistakes and learn from them.
We see the 50-over format between the two T20 World Cups as a building block for our squad. And that’s not compromising on performance at all, we feel we have an extremely strong squad outside of our final eleven regardless of format, so it will present opportunities for guys like that,
he added.
Morgan also mentioned how the series against India provides his team’s fringe players with a fantastic opportunity to strengthen their cases ahead of the T20 World Cup.
We have plenty of options with guys who want to bat in the top four, very similar to the T20 make up. We’ll see guys given opportunities, more so than the T20 series,
Morgan said.
It’s going to be exciting, three games at the same ground against a very strong Indian side is a huge opportunity for everyone to get back out there, in the frame of mind and the pace of 50-over cricket and for guys who want to make their case in both formats.
Given a World Cup is around the corner, playing any cricket is a huge opportunity for guys who have been here on the fringes and not made the selection so far. When you score runs or take wickets away from home there is always a huge incentive to try and push your case forward.
Despite having taken a 2-1 lead, England lost the T20I series. Morgan, however, looked at the bigger picture and said there were some valuable lessons to be learnt from the games played in Ahmedabad.
Adil bowling in the powerplay has added another dimension to somewhere we have struggled in the past. In four out of the five games, he bowled really well in the powerplay. Significant areas that need improvement or revisiting are the last 4-5 overs with both ball and the bat.
he said.
The formats are much aligned as cricket goes at the moment. The rate at which you score and restrict runs and take wickets are very similar to T20 cricket. Yes, we do have to change things and our mentality and get back into the rhythm of 50-over cricket but it should not be a huge task,
Morgan added.
