England captain Eoin Morgan is delighted with the fact of having a big pool of unbelievably talented players, as the 2019 World Cup champions are set to lock horns against Ireland in the three-match One Day International series starting on Thursday (July 30).
The ODI series between England and Ireland begins on Thursday with all matches of the series to be held at bio-secure Southampton’s Ageas Bowl. The ODI series will mark the resumption of the white-ball cricket following a Coronavirus-forced hiatus as well as kickstart the World Cup Super League to determine qualification for the 2023 World Cup in India.
Morgan will play Ireland with a second-string squad since the hosts have rested its first choice ODI stars for the upcoming ODI series because of their participation in the recently-concluded Test series against the West Indies, as England are maintaining two separate squads due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the Irish-born Morgan not seemed too bothered by that, saying he had more talented players at his disposal presently than he had ever seen before.
Morgan said ahead of the first ODI: “There’s such a big pool of players that are unbelievably talented. We don’t know if they will succeed in international cricket but you would be comfortable selecting them in a squad if you needed them at any stage. But I think we’re blessed with a high-caliber group of top-order batters, not only in the first XI but also sitting in the wings.”
He also noted that England’s maiden World Cup triumph last year boosted their confidence but at the same time, the expectations have also increased, so they have to try to continually get better every time in order to win more trophies.
The skipper further explained, “Winning last year has given our guys a huge amount of confidence in the process, strategy, and planning we went through over a four-year period. So it allows us to go into every World Cup with that strategy and forward-thinking and contributing along the way the whole time and trying to continually get better.”
Morgan signed off by saying, “Seeing the finished product last year was an eye-opener for everybody that hadn’t won a World Cup but also it creates a level of expectation everywhere we go and that’s one that sits well with some of our guys but for a lot of our guys they haven’t experienced that so it’s important to recognize what’s expected of us moving forward because we want to win more trophies.”
(With AFP Inputs)
