Confident To Face India In T20Is, Says England Skipper Eoin Morgan
Feb 4, 2019 at 1:38 PM
England’s limited-overs skipper Eoin Morgan has expressed the visitors are confident to perform well in the three-match Twenty20 series against India which is scheduled from Thursday in Kanpur.
“Having had a win under our belt, we are looking forward to the three-match T20 series in what could potentially be very exciting,” Morgan told media persons ahead of the three-match T20 series against the hosts.
In the recently concluded three-match One-Day International series which India won by 2-1, England salvaged some pride by winning the third ODI at Eden Gardens in Kolkata by five runs after Kedar Jadhav perished on the penultimate delivery before scoring a brilliant 90 off 75 balls on the bowling of Chris Woakes.
“I think confidence is the big word in T20 cricket, confidence and momentum. At the moment the guys are feeling lot more confident than they were after game two. They were doing a lot of hard work and did not get much reward,” Morgan added.
The 30-year-old left-handed batsman Morgan has expressed that his side would like to win most of the games as their performance against India has not been up to the mark.
“Winning is priority. Part and parcel of winning is improving skills along the way, or at least winning one half of the game, winning your bowling or your batting. In the ODI series we haven’t really put up a complete performance,” Morgan revealed.
While talking about last year’s T20 World Cup, Morgan revealed his inexperienced side did well with the bat and a ball to reach the final against the West Indies in India.
“Our guys aren’t really experienced either, we came here with a hugely inexperienced T20 team and got to the final (World T20). So the attitude and desire isn’t a problem, it’s just tying the skills together,” Morgan recalled.
However, Morgan told Joe Root will be available for the selection after suffering from a niggle that kept the top-order batsman out of the final ODI in Kolkata.
Fast-bowler David Willey will miss out the T20 opener on Thursday.
“David flew in yesterday, missed practice in the morning and he won’t be fit for selection. Nothing serious showed up on the scan, which is a huge positive because initially it looked quite painful, but he won’t be fit for tomorrow’s game,” said Morgan.
Morgan believes the left-arm fast bowler Tymal Mills might be noticed for IPL auction on February.
“It will happen naturally but it will be the difference between being a Test player and white ball player. We have one guy (Mills) who is, but that’s because of his injury problems,” remarked Morgan.
He feels that there is no requirement to groom a T20 specialist.
“No, I don’t think so. We are beyond that (grooming T20 specialists). Yes, 50 over and 20 over cricket are similar and probably more alike,” he said.
Morgan expressed that lucrative IPL will help the English players to cash on the opportunity on sub-continent wickets.
“The IPL auction can be unpredictable. The positive our guys have is they have put in good performances over a number of years,” Morgan concluded.
England will play the second T20 on January 29 in Nagpur followed by third and final T20 in Bengaluru on February 1.