Eoin Morgan arrives in India in good form. The last ball he received before setting off – from Ben Hilfenhaus – was in Sydney last Wednesday. There was no doubt that it would clear the boundary once contact was made with Morgan’s bat but he kept his eye on the ball out of curiosity – just to see how far this perfectly timed stroke would send it into the stands.
The ball ended up 25 rows back beyond the sightscreen. Thus Morgan won the match for Sydney Thunder, the first victory of their Big Bash campaign, off the last available delivery, his unbeaten 71 from 50 balls a welcome farewell gift.
It will be trickier for Morgan in India for all the hype about the Big Bash. For a start, the opposition will be more taxing and the scrutiny more intense as England embark on three ODIs, the first of which is in Pune on 15 January, and three T20 internationals. These matches will be Morgan’s first outing for England this winter after he declined the invitation to tour Bangladesh and it will be quite an achievement if his team is successful. Victory would also obscure a residual discontent about Morgan’s absence back in October.
Morgan has already explained that he does not regret missing the Bangladesh tour. All the players were assured that their decision would not impinge on their future selection and there was never any doubt that Morgan would return as captain, with the firm expectation that he will remain in charge for the Champions Trophy in England this summer. After all, under Morgan’s watch England’s one-day cricket has improved dramatically.
But it would be incorrect to conclude that nothing has changed. Morgan’s absence, though sanctioned, infuriated several in the England set-up, including Andrew Strauss, and the consequence is that Morgan does not have quite so much rope at his disposal when things start to go wrong.
Not that this is likely to disturb one of England’s most single-minded cricketers, who has forged a unique career path for himself. Many decades ago, another Middlesex man, Phil Edmonds, outlined his cricketing aspirations: essentially, he wanted to play club cricket somewhere in London and Test cricket for England. But no one listened. Morgan has come closer to fulfilling Edmonds’s dream than any other England cricketer, with the possible exception of SF Barnes more than a century ago.
Morgan has not played a first-class match since July 2015 when he got a pair for Middlesex against Somerset. Last September, just before the final round of Championship matches, I bumped into Angus Fraser, director of cricket at Middlesex, and I enquired whether Morgan might play in the club’s crucial fixture against Yorkshire: he was aghast at such a suggestion. It had not occurred to him that Morgan should be considered for selection.
In 2016, it was white-ball cricket only for Morgan. To be precise there were 51 matches: 22 of those were 50-over games, which comprised 15 ODIs for England plus one practice match against South Africa A and six for Middlesex. Of the T20 matches, 11 were for England (10 internationals plus another practice match against South Africa A), seven for the Sunrisers in the Indian Premier League, eight for Middlesex and three for Sydney Thunder.
There would have been much practice time in between these 51 matches, but Morgan’s workload hardly matches up to that of England’s ever-presents such as Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali. It is hard to know whether to become extremely grumpy about this or to simply sit back and admire the way Morgan has organised his cricketing life. The old Sunday journalist in me probably dictates the latter course.
Morgan’s priorities are clear; he is now the ultimate white-ball cricketer and Strauss and Trevor Bayliss can make a virtue of that. He should certainly reunite with the England camp in India fresh and eager for the fray. Joining him from Australia will be Sam Billings, Jason Roy, David Willey and then Chris Jordan (for the T20 matches), who have been big-bashing.
Morgan’s opposite number in India is a busier man. Virat Kohli has just succeeded MS Dhoni as India’s white-ball captain and it is just as well that he always appears super-fit and super-motivated. Dhoni is some act to follow. The coolest cat in cricket has led India’s one-day team for almost a decade and is the only man to receive the trophies of the World T20, the World Cup and the Champions Trophy – in 2007, 2011 and 2013 respectively. He is happy to play under Kohli and will do so along with another veteran, Yuvraj Singh, who has been recalled.
Dhoni could well be liberated upon giving up his leadership duties, a theme that may be revisited after the conclusion of the Strauss/Alastair Cook get-together. Even so, it may be difficult for Dhoni not to wave his arms around to fielders automatically looking in his direction for guidance.
