MELBOURNE, Australia —
Eoin Morgan has rubbished suggestion that his personal form is a worry for England when they take on Australia in their opening match of the Cricket World Cup on Saturday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
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The England captain, considered one of the most innovative batsmen in the shorter formats of the game, has made three ducks in his four previous visits to the crease. His other score was a two.
But speaking to the media Thursday, the 28-year-old Morgan said: “I am not really that concerned. I went through a little bad patch before Christmas and I feel that since then, when I played the Big Bash, I have been able to turn things around. I have had a couple of low scores but I look to cash in on Saturday if I manage to get past 10-20 balls.
“It’s just fives games ago that I scored a hundred (121 against Australia in the Tri-series at Sydney), so I don’t have to look that far back to actually reconnect with what works well for me. I took a lot from that hundred, and especially because it came against Australia.”
The Dublin-born England captain insisted that the loss against Pakistan on Wednesday, and the other warm-up match against West Indies, which they won by nine wickets, was the not the style of cricket they wanted to play.
“The last two warm-up games did not replicate the fashion in which we want to play our cricket. Those were dictated by the wickets on which we played on,” said Morgan.
“The first one against West Indies, it nibbled around everywhere and I thought the guys did very well to battle through.
“And against Pakistan, it was quite a ‘stoppy’ wicket. It wasn’t a 300 wicket, the par was around 265. What ultimately cost us that match was not the batting, but the fact that we did not have an extra seamer. At 70-4, we could have done with another seamer. There was a period during which we had to use two spinners and it skidded on and did not grip.”
Morgan also felt that the presence of 90,000 fans, which is the expected attendance figure for the World Cup opener, inside the humongous surrounding of the MCG would not affect his team.
“Playing at the MCG is certainly going to be a challenge. When you get out on the ground, it is obviously a big stadium,” said Morgan.
“But majority of our guys have played here before, only two haven’t (Moeen Ali and James Taylor). And the guys who have played here before agree that although it is a fantastic venue to play, when you get out in the middle you are so far away from the crowd – it’s such a big AFL oval – it’s not as intimidating as against some of the other stadiums we have played in.”
England have lost 13 of their last 15 ODI matches against Australia in Australia, but Morgan was confident his team can turn things around on Saturday.
Saying there was a possibility that the tag of being the favourites, and playing against such a large home crowd, might just work against the Australians, Morgan added: “It’s important for us to focus on what we do best. I think a lot of time in the past we have strived for a formula that’s not been ours.
“We have turned things around since arriving here by adapting to what we do best here as opposed to what anybody else does well. If we can produce what I believe is our best cricket on Saturday, we will be able to beat Australia.
“They have had a great run, as have New Zealand. That probably makes Australia the favourites and New Zealand the second favourites. With that comes a lot of pressure, which is sometimes a nice pressure to have to perform against 90,000 home fans. But if it goes against them, it would be interesting to see how they react.”
