Eoin Morgan admitted that even in an innings of 40 against Sri Lanka at the T20 World Cup he did not feel like he has returned to form.
Morgan came in with England three down early after a form slump, and took a while to get going, making only nine from his first 20 balls.
He and centurion Jos Buttler sped up, however, and he hit three sixes and ended at better than a run a ball as England posted 163, enough for a 27-run win.
Morgan says he and Buttler allowed some “really quiet, shocking” overs to pass (they scored just 13 runs in five overs at one stage) against Sri Lanka’s excellent spinners on a low Sharjah wicket, because it was “better than just slogging it up in the air”.
“No,” said Morgan, when asked if he was hitting the ball better. "This ground is very challenging. Maybe batting second I might have hit the middle of the bat a little bit more, but playing games here the last month, coming in, because the ball is older and darker, and the bounce is really low, it’s hard to get going.
“After facing a lot of balls, they were due to bowl a bad ball. It’s good, it’s runs on the board, it’s a contribution to winning the game, batting with one of my best mates as well.”
Morgan believes his England side will be stronger for the experience of defending a total in extremely dewy conditions when missing a frontline bowler.
Morgan lost the toss for the second time in the tournament, but England had to bat first. Buttler’s century helped them to 163, which looked defendable, although the dew came down heavily.
Nine balls into his spell, with Sri Lanka five down, Tymal Mills went down injured, meaning Morgan had to manoeuvre his attack cleverly, with Liam Livingstone particularly having to shoulder a greater burden.
“I think it is important [to have batted first],” said Morgan. “Even if it wasn’t a win, it’s important to experience the challenges that every other side has to overcome. That’s as bad as I think it [the dew] is going to be.
“[It gives us experience of] how if we are playing a side that comes harder for longer, say South Africa on Saturday, we’ll have to ask questions of ourselves earlier to try to post a bigger score, and possibly risk posting a lower score at the same time. There are things to juggle.
“Looking back at it now, I think things worked out alright for us, if one of our bowlers hadn’t gone down I think we would have been in a reasonably strong position, but asking more of the guys I think actually worked out well as an experience.”
