England’s forgotten man returns to the fore next week. Just as the arrival of swallows promise that summer is on its way, so the appearance of Eoin Morgan at some sponsors’ do – just about the only way an audience can be granted with an England cricketer nowadays – heralds the advent of the one-day internationals.
On Tuesday, at Trent Bridge, England play the first of five ODIs against Sri Lanka after which there will be a solitary Twenty20 match at Southampton on 5 July. Morgan, after leading England to the verge of an ICC Trophy in the World T20 in India, is back among us. And he should be relatively fresh.
A year ago, there was concern about Morgan’s preparation for the ODIs against New Zealand. It was agreed between the England and Wales Cricket Board and Middlesex that he should have almost three weeks off before they began. The greybeards frowned. Surely the only way to get ready for international cricket is by scoring runs in the middle?
After his break Morgan proceeded to deliver four consecutive scores of more than 50 against New Zealand, including a century at Nottingham. He reckoned that freshening the mind would be more productive than another innings. And he was proved right. It is a neat approach, though I wonder how many employers would be so sympathetic to the notion that a three-week break is essential before the next job.
There has been no such break for Morgan this year, but his build-up to the ODIs has been unusually anonymous given his status in the game. After the World Cup he joined Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League, the team who won the tournament, but he was not a regular in the side. He played seven games and did not appear in the final. Since then he has had seven white‑ball matches for Middlesex (three T20s and four 50-over games), scoring a few runs without lighting any fires.
In this era Morgan has come closer to the unfulfilled dream of Phil Edmonds, the Middlesex and England left-arm spinner of the 1970s and 80s. Edmonds, an independent man, tossed out the idea that he would like to combine playing club cricket in London with Test cricket for England. Oddly enough, neither Alec Bedser nor Peter May, chairmen of selectors in this period, were enamoured with that idea. Nor were Middlesex, who take a far more sympathetic line with Morgan – they are not paying his salary and Gus Fraser is a selector.
Morgan will be reunited with Jos Buttler, his vice-captain at the T20 World Cup, who was also at the IPL. He has been more prominent in our thoughts recently. Buttler played 14 games for the Mumbai Indians and has recently turned out for Lancashire in white-ball cricket, producing the odd spectacular such as his 91 from 73 balls against Warwickshire. He has also been discussed more regularly.
“Long-term, is it better for England to promote Jonny Bairstow up the order in Test cricket and hand Buttler – or some other keeper – the gloves?” has become a frequent debating point during a one‑sided Test series. In the forthcoming ODI games Buttler will be keeping wicket, while Bairstow, if selected in the final XI – and it would be daft not to invest in his rich seam of form – will play as a batsman. This surely suggests that in the England camp Buttler is deemed to be a superior keeper to Bairstow, who had his aberrations behind the stumps in the Test series, though they are hardly likely to articulate that view. Hence the quality of Buttler’s keeping over the next fortnight becomes an interesting side issue.
The main focus, however, is to continue England’s resurgence with a white ball under Morgan, which seems to coincide with increased specialisation. In the ODI squad, 50% of the players had no involvement in the Test series; that reduces to 15% for the Twenty20 match. The selectors like to remain loyal for as long as possible.
Throughout the Test series they stuck with Nick Compton for three more matches, but it would be remarkable if that loyalty extended to the series against Pakistan. They also kept faith with Steven Finn when his rhythm went missing. Likewise, they are keeping old Liam Plunkett in their one-day squad (the only man over 30) despite the claims of Nottinghamshire’s Jake Ball, who was in the Test squads and who has a good reputation with the white ball. There is flexibility there for Morgan because of the presence of so many all‑rounders, even with Ben Stokes sidelined. All the bowlers can reasonably claim to be all‑rounders with the exception of Finn and even he might take umbrage at this assessment (though this would be a mistake; handy nightwatchmen are not much use in this form of the game).
Sri Lanka should be more of a threat with a white ball. Dasun Shanaka, dropped from the Test team after taking two wickets in his second over, is likely to stay in the team longer this time. Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal are very dangerous opponents. But, unusually in this form of the game, England are the strong favourites. Forget Saint-Étienne and Melbourne. A first Super Series victory is on the horizon.
