I am not going to stand in the way of England winning a World Cup – Eoin Morgan

Morgan
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England captain Eoin Morgan said that he is ready to drop himself from the team if it would help his team to win the World Cup as he only managed to score 82 runs in his last 7 T20Is.

England skipper Eoin Morgan says he would drop himself from the playing X1 if his performance continues to fail. 

He would give the chance to another player to play in the tournament. Morgan has not performed well in the second leg of IPL 2021 for KKR. 

He scored 82 runs in his 7 T20Is this year. His highest T20I score for England is just 28 in the calendar year.

He said that he is ready to take the risks with the bat whenever the team demands. 

He didn’t play in the warm-up game against India on Monday but he is ready to lead the side against New Zealand on Wednesday in the last warm-up match before the opening campaign of the T20 World Cup. 

“It’s always something I’ve said – it’s always an option,”

he said when asked if he would leave himself out. 

“I’m not going to stand in the way of a team winning the World Cup. I’ve been short of runs but my captaincy has been pretty good as it goes.

“I’ve always managed to compartmentalize both and treat them as two different challenges. Not being a bowler and being a bit older and not contributing as much in the field, I’ve loved the role of captain. You get two bites at the cherry impacting the game.

“As regards my batting I wouldn’t be standing here if I hadn’t come out of every bad run of form that I’d ever had. The nature of T20 cricket and where I bat means I always have to take quite high-risk options and I’ve come to terms with that. It’s just something you deal with, it’s the nature of the job so I’m going to continue taking those risks if the team dictates they need them, if they don’t I won’t.”

Morgan confirms that the injured Livingstone is now well and ready to play against New Zealand in the warm-up game. Livingstone was injured while playing the practice game against India.

 “He’s fine, absolutely fine, nothing wrong,”

Morgan said.

Read full article: Why Liam Livingstone is doubtful for the T20 World Cup

Morgan also suggested that they have five group games to play that would give the best teams. 

Losing the game against India now doesn’t matter because the warm-up game is the preparation match before the tournament. We should more focus on our next games.

“I think they’re important for guys that haven’t been playing a lot of cricket to get a couple of run-outs before we start the tournament,”

Morgan said of the warm-ups

“With the new format and the larger group as your first challenge throughout the tournament, I suppose you don’t have to be coming into the tournament as you think you might do in previous years when one game might cost you qualifying.

“With more games that you play, it allows you to establish some form as a side and almost gather momentum into the tournament. Whereas in previous years, the tournaments that I’ve played, 2009 getting out of the group stage was extremely difficult, 2010 when we won unbelievably difficult, likewise 2016 when we got to the final, we scraped through the group stages. The two in between were bundled out in the group stages. So I think there’s a little bit more leeway with this new format.”

“The sides that play the best cricket and progress from the group stages, very similar to 2019 [50-over World Cup] where the group stage games were nine [matches] and everybody played everybody, it sort of eliminates a banana skin potential that knocks you out of the tournament.”

Morgan said England would take confidence from their victory in the 2019 World Cup. He led England in the 2019 World Cup and also in the last T20 World Cup in 2016. 

“We take a lot of confidence from that,”

he said

“Having come through the challenges that we did I suppose after 2015, the learnings that we took into the T20 World Cup in 2016, the Champions Trophy in 2017, and then culminating in the World Cup in 2019, builds a lot of confidence and reinforces the cricket that we’re playing in the right direction we want to be going as a white-ball group.

“We’re always trying to push the limits, we’re always trying to get better as a side, and even since 2019 our cricket has been as consistent as ever in the T20 format which is extremely difficult to do when there’s been chopping and changing the whole time. And with the opportunity of not only this World Cup but next year’s as well, there’s a real chance of being contenders.

“It’ll be unbelievably special if we manage to do it. The group of players that we’ve had together for the last five or six years, alongside some new, really talented, and young guys coming through that have made a name for themselves, makes the composition of the squad extremely strong.

“Playing away from home creates challenges within that and for the first time since 2016, we’re going into a world tournament where we haven’t been favorites. So again,  some challenges come with that, but challenges that we’ve overcome in bilateral series on previous occasions, and challenges that we’re looking forward to.”

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