EOIN MORGAN says he will drop himself from England’s World Cup team if his form doesn’t improve.
Captain Morgan endured a miserable sequence of scores in the recent Indian Premier League and insisted: “I’m not going to stand in the way of a team winning the World Cup.”
Morgan, 35, did not play in England’s warm-up defeat to India on Monday despite managing just 41 runs in nine innings after the resumption of the IPL.
He will take his place on Wednesday in the second and final practice match against New Zealand before England face West Indies on Saturday in their Twenty20 World Cup opener.
Morgan’s presence means England will have to omit a batsman such as Dawid Malan or leave out a bowler and upset the balance of the team.
On the plus side, Morgan is a calm and astute leader who is almost worshipped by his team.
His captaincy is a strong consideration in selection – as he showed by guiding Kolkata Knight Riders to the IPL final despite his own lack of runs.
When asked if he would consider leaving himself out, Morgan said: “It’s always something I’ve said – it’s always an option. I’m not going to stand in the way of a team winning the World Cup.
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“I’ve been short of runs but my captaincy has been pretty good as it goes. So ‘yes’ is the answer.
“I’ve always managed to compartmentalise batting and captaincy and treat them as two different challenges.
“Not being a bowler and being a bit older and not contributing as much in the field, I’ve loved the role of captain.
“You get two bites at the cherry impacting the game.
“As regards my batting, I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t come out of every bad run of form that I’ve had.
“The nature of T20 cricket and where I bat means I always have to take quite high-risk options and I’ve come to terms with that.
“It’s just something you deal with, it’s the nature of the job. So I’m going to continue taking those risks if the team needs them.”
England’s last attempt to win the T20 World Cup in 2016 ended with Carlos Brathwaite whacking Ben Stokes for four successive sixes in the final over of the final.
Morgan admits the incredible ending occupied his thoughts for several months.
He explained: “I probably thought about it for six or seven months afterwards to try to understand it.
“It was one of the most incredible sporting events in isolation that you’ll ever watch.
“It was not something you could just let run off your back, you had to try to understand it and learn from it.
“For a guy to hit four consecutive sixes and win the game was an incredible feat that’s never been done before. That’s how I understood it.
“It will be unbelievably special if we manage to win another World Cup.
The players we’ve had together for the last five or six years, alongside some new and talented guys, mean we have an extremely strong squad.
“I don’t think this tournament is especially open. The format eradicates how open things are because each team plays five games in the group stages. It sort of eliminates the banana skin potential.
“If you have a number of poor performances that knock you out, you don’t deserve to go through to the semi-finals.”
Tests revealed that Lancashire’s Liam Livingstone, who left the field after dropping a catch on Monday, has not broken his left little finger.
