Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

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Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby englandmad666 » Tue Feb 11, 2014 9:53 am

Hello all, its been a while so hope you are all well.... Well what a disaster this entire winter has been for england, infact i think its easily the worst winter of international cricket i have ever seen as a england fan, traumatic at best.

As the heated arguments rage on over KP and his future or as it seems right now non future in the side a host of test places have suddenly become available for grabs, currently england are missing a opener, a number 4 and 5, a wicket keeper, a spinner and a quick.. The only players seemingly guaranteed test cricket come SL in summer are cook, bell, stokes, broad and anderson. It could be said that is been generous to them to, but i think you stick with your core and barring the emerging stokes you have some truly good test records in that group. So the question is who will fill those berths?

Now there is a range of good county talent that could make the step up so i doubt we will struggle for candidates, despite all the doom and gloom surrounding the England team we do have some good young players in our system and will (even if it takes time) bounce back from this winter. England will never forget this.

On that track though comes the news that Eoin morgan has made himself available to middlesex for the full season instead of going to the IPL.

Now some may commend that decision as after all with places available in the test side then eoin clearly wants to put his name forward for one of those spots and its easy to forget that morgan has already played test cricket for England and done ok for the national side, he was dropped if i remember rightly from the side after the UAE mauling by Pakistan, but not before scoring 2 hundreds and 3 50s for the test side in 16 tests with a average of 30. His average to is a sign of how well the top 5 was performing at the time with home series wins against india on the back of some heavy run scoring by the likes of bell, kp and a massive cook dig, often leaving him to put the finishing touch to innings or to be aggressive from ball 1 and series at home against some excellent quicks against Pakistan.

But in truth eoin failed and we moved on , however now places are free maybe he feels its his time again to be part of the team but in truth i do feel this is a big big mistake.

It seems odd to question somebody's attempts to better themselves, especially as somebody as talented as morgan who could well prove me wrong and score a lot of runs for england in the longer format however are england by trying to get eoin back in doing more damage then good?

The reason i say that is because of the undoubted talent the boy has in the shorter format, as a odi player he could become the best in the world, his game is there and he should finish his career comfortably englands highest scoring ODI player not to mention his ability is ideal for the t20 game where i think he should be batting at 3, building an innings rotating the strike and hopefully finishing it off at the end. Again he could easily be one of the best batsmen in the world in that format, whilst apart of me thinks he should be englands shorter format captain instead of having cook and broad.


Now people can and will say of course he can still do all of the above things and still play test cricket, which i think is a fair point but is eoin going to damage his rhythm in the shorter format by mixing it up and missing out on events such as the IPL, the big bash and even the english T20 tourny by having to much cricket going on at once, he may get away with at first but the demands of a england player who plays each format are massive, look at joe root. Here is a young Yorkshire lad who has been away from home for 5 months and had a shocking tour of Australia who will go to the Caribbean at the end of the month to play more cricket when quite honestly he looks mentally shot! Its a tough game playing all formats and more importantly a mentally tiring one.

My fear is that we lose our best shorter format batsmen by exposing him to a game that in my opinion he probably isnt good enough for and shouldnt concern himself with. Morgan has the ability to be the best one day player in the world and maybe the best captain to, i hope england dont ruin his career by trying to change something that doesn't need changing. Hopefully the new coach will sit down with him and lay out his one day path not his 5 day one.

What are your thoughts? Can morgan prosper at test level? Or will it damage him as ODI/T20 player to?

Comments please
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Re: Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby Gingerfinch » Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:10 am

Welcome back, Englandmad :salute

To add to your list, I would hope Prior comes back in for the first test of the summer.

As for Morgan. I would like to see him be made ODI, and T20 captain, and not play test cricket, although I respect his decision in opting out of the IPL.

By doing this we have arguably our best limited over batsman as captain, who thanks to this, will not be dropped, not unless it really goes pair shaped, and as Arthur pointed out, a captain who will not need resting, unlike Broad.

As for the test places. I would like to see Root, Robson, Taylor, and Ballance battle for the mentioned spots.
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Re: Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby meninblue » Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:28 am

Morgan has a lot to improve on his batting technique.He is certainly not one of those rare players like Sehwag who are test success in spite of lack of foot movement and proper technique etc.However, never rule a cricketer out from making a good comeback.The way things are happening in English cricket, i can see him getting one more chance in the middle order.
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Re: Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby englandmad666 » Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:31 am

Dr Robert wrote:Welcome back, Englandmad :salute

To add to your list, I would hope Prior comes back in for the first test of the summer.

As for Morgan. I would like to see him be made ODI, and T20 captain, and not play test cricket, although I respect his decision in opting out of the IPL.

By doing this we have arguably our best limited over batsman as captain, who thanks to this, will not be dropped, not unless it really goes pair shaped, and as Arthur pointed out, a captain who will not need resting, unlike Broad.

As for the test places. I would like to see Root, Robson, Taylor, and Ballance battle for the mentioned spots.


Cheers pal, i will be doing a article later on my test voids i think but i would like to see ali and robson a chance and also ballance, chopra and bairstow (as a batsmen to) agree about matty p though
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Re: Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby D/L » Tue Feb 11, 2014 11:11 am

englandmad666 wrote:...What are your thoughts? Can morgan prosper at test level? Or will it damage him as ODI/T20 player to?

Comments please

Welcome back, em666. As should have been the case before, Morgan should first demonstrate an aptitude for the longer form of the game with his county before being allowed anywhere near the test squad. If we see him in the test team at all, therefore, it should not be before the latter part of the summer.
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Re: Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby D/L » Tue Feb 11, 2014 11:14 am

Dr Robert wrote:To add to your list, I would hope Prior comes back in for the first test of the summer...

Will Prior have had time by then to convince the selectors that he has left his horrendous batting form well and truly behind?
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Re: Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Feb 11, 2014 11:33 am

It's a fair point that being an all format player is too hard to do. Currently Broad and Bresnan are doing this. Being captain as well is another burden. But if England feel the coach should be all format, maybe the captain should be too.

When I saw this move from Morgan, I thought the obvious, that England had promised him a place in the Test team, and he was being readied as a replacement for Cook. But he does at least have to score some early season runs, surely. Personally, picking him as a potential skipper is the only way he gets in the side. He was dropped, and he's given no reason to be reselected. Younger players are ahead of him, like Taylor, Root and Ballance.

There are options in every position, though we will be left with a lack of experience, apart from the spinner. I don't think Cook wants Monty. Otherwise, I hope Woakes gets a chance this season. He's the stand out seamer in CC, and he is a proper bat.

I do think we need a new skipper. Not so much that Cook was unimaginative, more that he looked panicky. Maybe without Flower's intense presence he can breath a little. But if he has a bad summer, he should go.
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Re: Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby mikesiva » Tue Feb 11, 2014 12:39 pm

Dr Robert wrote:Welcome back, Englandmad :salute


Seconded....
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IMHO, if Morgan can be recycled as a Test player, then Bopara should be as well....

Morgan has played 16 Tests and averages 30, while Bopara has played 13 Tests and averages 32.

In FC cricket (four-day format), Morgan averages less than 35, while Bopara averages more than 41.
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Re: Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby englandmad666 » Tue Feb 11, 2014 1:33 pm

Thanks for the welcome back guys :salute

Its clear morgan is going to have to do a lot more then win the selectors over with a few early season runs i would remain sceptical until i saw a consistent run of scores to convince me he is the real deal at test level. I just worry about burn out and him missing games, we need him to be ready for the World Cup in aus next year but also continue to improve in that format of the game, the game stands still for no man.

D/L i do think matty p, will come back in though, admittedly he had an atrocious 2013 after new zeland but i think we cant really expect jos buttler to step in and from what i have seen of bairstow is that his batting still needs tweaking and like morgan is better suited to the shorter format for me at the moment.
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Re: Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby Making_Splinters » Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:00 pm

If Morgan is to be in any way considered for the Test team again then he needs to go and score runs for Middlesex.

It really is that simple.
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Re: Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby m@tt » Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:06 pm

As I posted on another topic earlier...

When Morgan first got into the Test team, I did see him as a future replacement for KP, a game-changer at 4/5. But I didn't expect him to play so little first-class cricket in the years following. Good to see him make this decision. Although I don't currently feel he is good enough in this format, some good early season runs could change my mind.
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Re: Morgan the test player...or a wasted chance?

Postby andy » Sat Mar 01, 2014 11:40 am

I don't think he will play another test, and i don't think he is good enough to succed at test level...too many technical flaws.
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