England’s Test captain Ben Stokes and white-ball vice-captain Jos Buttler have extended their support to struggling limited-overs skipper Eoin Morgan and backed him to regain form with the bat.
The 35-year-old has been struggling for runs for the past 18 months. He has not scored a T20 or ODI half-century since 2019 and has been going through the worst phase of his career with the willow, which raised questions over his place in the England team ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022.
In England’s recent 3-0 win over the Netherlands in the ODI series, Morgan scored ducks in the first two matches and missed the final ODI due to a groin problem. However, Stokes and Buttler said that nobody is questioning Morgan's place in the England camp.
Ben Stokes told reporters: “Well, he's only had two low scores so I wouldn't say he's going through a hard time at the moment. I think the press is the only ones giving him a hard time and I think the players have shown it's not an issue with them.”
The Test captain further added, “People are allowed to not score many runs, and more than that he's our captain. He's a phenomenal leader and always will be so I've got no issues with anything going on with him at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Buttler stated: “I can't put into words what he's achieved. Everyone always talks about his captaincy but you forget what a brilliant batsman he's been for England in over 200 ODIs - that doesn't just go away overnight. Everyone in the team is backing him.”
(With Reuters Inputs)
