Morgan says England have to adapt to spinning pitches to defend their World Cup title in India.
England's white-ball captain Eoin Morgan hopes for spinning pitches during the upcoming three-match One Day International (ODI) series against Australia as the 2019 World Cup champions are eager to begin the process to defend the World Cup title in India in 2023.
England's rise to the top spot in the ODI rankings and historic World Cup triumph last year at home was built around posting big totals on batting paradises in the last four-year build-up to the tournament since they played the majority of 50-over cricket at home pitches which were very often good batting tracks.
However, the pitches during the 2019 World Cup were more difficult for batting, but England adapted well enough to some slow and low pitches which require not so much all-out attack and boundary hitting as nous and touch and the rotation of strike.
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Well, the next ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 as well as T20 World Cup 2021 will be played in very different conditions in India, where the pitches will generally be lower, slower and favor spinners more and Morgan believes England must adapt to spinning pitches if they want to defend their World Cup title.
Ahead of the ODI series opener against Australia on Friday (September 11), the England skipper is expecting a gentle turner at Old Trafford in Manchester with the weather conditions and wicket likely to favor slow bowlers, as he aims to begin work during the ODI series against the fierce rivals.
Morgan told reporters: “It's a huge benefit to us playing at Old Trafford, particularly if we play on the wicket I think we're going to play on which will hopefully be slow and take a lot of turns. That's the sort of wicket we will be more than likely to play on in India in the World Cup of 2023 and to play on that for a period of time will expose us in different areas we need to get better at.”
He concluded, “Over the course of the last four-and-a-half years we have had to wait to play at Cardiff or Old Trafford or go away on tour to experience those conditions. So hopefully a little more of that will help us get better at what we need to do on those sort of pitches.”
(With AFP Inputs)