Winning trophy in India would be bigger achievement than 2019 title, says Eoin Morgan

Ahmedabad, Oct 4 (IANS) Former England white-ball captain Eoin Morgan believes winning the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup will be a bigger achievement for the side as compared to clinching the 2019 title on home soil.

England, the defending champions who won the 2019 title under Morgan’s leadership, will be opening their 2023 campaign in a re-match of 2019 final against England at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

“Quietly behind the scenes Buttler and head coach Matthew Mott have been planning for this World Cup but, if you asked them, they would probably say it has been unbelievably challenging. The side has chopped and changed quite a lot while there were question marks over the squad with the late omission of Jason Roy and inclusion of Harry Brook.”

“All things considered, it would without a doubt be a bigger achievement for England to win this World Cup than when we won in 2019. The nature of the schedule has not allowed them to have the type of preparation they would like and being away from home, especially in India where India are so strong, is tough.”

“Winning here would carry a lot more weight than winning at home. I am still extremely hopeful that England can defend the title, though,” wrote Morgan in his column for Sky Sports on Wednesday.

Morgan also said Jos Buttler hasn’t got the support for the build-up to the tournament, like he got during 2019 World Cup. “The challenges for me going into 2019 were completely different to what Jos has gone through coming into this tournament.”

“Between 2015 and 2019, our sole focus was trying to win the ODI World Cup at home. There was a clear emphasis on having your best players available in the year leading up and trying to get absolute role clarity in every position possible. Jos has not had that,” added Morgan, who retired from international cricket last year.

He signed off by saying Buttler is a skipper who does things in his own way. “The biggest compliment I can pay the captain is that he does things his own way. He is not trying to replicate what I would do.”

“Jos' decision-making ability is as good as anybody else's under pressure and he went into his first tournament as captain, last year's T20 World Cup, and won the trophy, which is not an easy thing to do.”