Advertisement

England captain Eoin Morgan eyes India ODI series scalp to complete the set

Attack mode: Eoin Morgan is targeting a first ODI series win over India since 2011: PA
Attack mode: Eoin Morgan is targeting a first ODI series win over India since 2011: PA

On the road to the 2019 World Cup, games like Tuesday’s series decider against India at Headingley bring exactly what Eoin Morgan craves: winner-takes-all pressure.

Morgan is not a fan of bilateral series, because they do not throw up such situations — perfect preparation for a World Cup semi-final or final — often enough. At 2-2, England got one against New Zealand in Christchurch in March and won handsomely, only to lose a one-off game against Scotland.

Victory at Headingley would, for Morgan, be “a very significant” result. India are England’s missing major series win since their white-ball revolution in 2015; indeed they have not won an ODI series against them since 2011. Whatever the result, England keep their No1 ranking, although perhaps not their status as World Cup favourites.

Captain Morgan said: “They are a really strong side, as we saw in periods at Lord’s and particularly at Trent Bridge, so to beat them in a series would be significant — very significant.”

The signs are finally good for the five Tests that follow. Joe Root is up and running, having scored his first century of the season at Lord’s on Saturday, an innings of class and clarity that takes him level with Marcus Trescothick on 12 ODI hundreds — the most by an England batsman.

It is significant that Root looked comfortable against the left-arm wrist-spin of Kuldeep Yadav, who will almost certainly feature when India’s Test squad is named this week.

He still took three wickets but England appear to be learning fast against him. “The more we faced him, the easier he got to pick,” said Morgan. “Joe was quite significant in that — his rotation of strike, his calm head.

“I thought we did our basics right. Our plans are always about positive thinking and we didn’t veer away from that.”

With the rest of the summer in mind, Test skipper Root — and the new selection duo of Ed Smith and James Taylor — will have half an eye on proceedings elsewhere.

The Lions, captained by Surrey’s Rory Burns, take on India A at Worcester with a number of Test candidates — including Dawid Malan and Sam Curran, who have been released from the ODI squad — among them.

In Manchester, James Anderson is playing for Lancashire Seconds, and began with two for 32 from 14 overs yesterday, while Stuart Broad is confident of being fit after injections on an ankle injury. From Sunday, all of them are expected to play in a full Championship programme, after which the Test squad will be named.