 "Former England captain Eoin Morgan in a file photo. Reuters")
Former England captain Eoin Morgan has reflected on multiple talking points in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) edition, India’s T20 World Cup chances, who gets the nod in the wicketkeeper conundrum among other topics.
On India’s wicketkeeper for T20 World Cup
Morgan chose Rishabh Pant as his first choice for the wicketkeeper-batter role at the T20 World Cup in June. Pant returned to action in the IPL after 14 months out and has smashed two fifties in five games at a strike rate of 154.54. Other contenders for the role are Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan and Jitesh Sharma .
“(I would pick him) because he (Pant) is the player that he is. I don’t see him being hampered in anyway coming back from his car crash. For me he is a very disruptive player,” said Morgan during an interaction organised by IPL broadcaster Jio Cinema.
“As a leftie he can play a big role in the middle order and add a huge amount of pressure as opposed to generic right handers,” said the ODI World Cup winning captain.
On Virat Kohli and RCB
Morgan reckons that Virat Kohli’s strike-rate in the IPL cannot be questioned, especially because the other Royal Challengers Bengaluru batters are not complementing him.
Kohli has aggregated 316 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 146.29. Yet, RCB are languishing at the bottom of the table as others have not delivered as per expectations.
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More Shorts“It is very difficult to point finger at a guy who is the holder of the orange cap and the rest of the batting line is not scoring runs. I don’t see a point in that. For RCB they are struggling with the bowling and the rest of the batting why would I place blame on someone who is scoring the majority of the runs,” said Morgan.
India’s biggest challenge at T20 World Cup
India will once again try to end their ICC title drought when they go into the T20 World Cup in USA and West Indies. The 2007 champions will play all their league games in the USA before moving to the Caribbean for the Super Eight stage of the competition.
“India’s biggest challenge in T20 WC will be adapting to conditions,” said Morgan. “They play Ireland and Pakistan in New York on a pitch we don’t know what it is going to be like. It should be an excellent venue but there is no previous information about the pitch. For me that can cause issues.
“It is one of the hardest things. Winning away from home is about how you play conditions and in T20 it can be difficult,” added Morgan.
On Mayank Yadav
Before Mayank Yadav was sidelined with fitness issues , the IPL rookie produced consecutive Player of the Match performances for Lucknow Super Giants. Bowling consistently around the 150kmph mark , he hurried the batters with pace and also impressed the greats of the game with his accuracy.
“He is just an x-factor player. I am trying to remember after I first saw him ball, bowling upwards of 150kmph, who would have been the quickest Indian bowler that would I have played against. There is nobody who bowls quicker than he does or with the accuracy that he does. That is exciting.”
On best Indian IPL captain
On the best Indian captain in the IPL so far, Morgan picked Sanju Samson of Rajasthan Royals.
“If you look at Hardik Pandya, he had success in a short span of time with GT. Now he is with Mumbai and starting to turn things around. You can’t put a price on winning, as a captain that is what you are judged on.
“Probably the stand out skipper has been Sanju Samson. I say that because of one key factor. His use of Riyan Parag, not just promoting him up the order at number four, how outspoken he has been about wanting him to bat at four.
“One of the hardest things to do as captain is to instill confidence and belief in a player to make them better players. Sanju has done with Riyan,” highlighted Morgan.