The England coach, Peter Moores, has admitted he does not yet know his first-choice XI for his team’s opening World Cup match in little over a month’s time but he is confident the forthcoming Tri-Series against Australia and India will provide enough time for him to find a winning formula.
England departed for Australia on Tuesday afternoon with a maximum of seven one-day internationals to play under their new captain, Eoin Morgan, before their Valentine’s Day World Cup opener against Michael Clarke’s side at the MCG. Morgan’s involvement in the Big Bash League means he is yet to discuss team selection with Moores, but the coach is relaxed about the preparation time.
“With that starting XI, I’m going to sit down with Eoin because he will have a strong view on what he thinks that starting XI is and we haven’t discussed it in detail yet,” said Moores. “I think it’s really important that we give ourselves that time. There are obviously different permutations of the team. Actually I can write down three or four different teams and they all seem really strong, which is a really good place for us to be in. It’ll be important that we identify that shape early and as I say, we can do that when we get to Australia.”
Morgan was appointed England’s ODI captain following the sacking of Alastair Cook in December, leaving the side with a little under two months to bed in under new leadership. Moores – who, along with his co-selectors Angus Fraser, James Whittaker and Mick Newell, made the decision to remove Cook – said he was comfortable with the decision.
“Anybody who has planned or has done anything knows that plans are there to be changed at times,” he said. “We’ve got to a position where it felt like it was the right thing to do. It was a brave decision to change it; it felt like the right decision to move and so we moved as a set of selectors. I’m comfortable with that. I think we’ve got the right people on the plane. We’ve got to go there and perform.”
The side begin their final preparations following a 5-2 ODI series defeat against Sri Lanka, but Moores feels that the pressure of competing for a place in the squad for the World Cup may have had an effect on performances.
“One of the hardest things in Sri Lanka was that you had a group of players who were conscious that they wanted to get on the plane to go to a World Cup and that’s a reality,” he said.
