They may have lost to Australia three times on this tour already, but Eoin Morgan’s belief in his side remains undimmed. A week ahead of the opening games of the tournament, the England captain has insisted they can win the World Cup.
It will not be easy, he confessed. But if they can improve their death bowling, Morgan felt they have the talent to beat anyone.
“We’re here to win the World Cup,” Morgan said. “That’s the bottom line. Like every other team, we’re here to get the best out of ourselves, and us at our best, we can win this World Cup.
“The talent within the squad is untold. It’s certainly the most talented squad I’ve ever been a part of, and to get the opportunity to lead these group of players in a World Cup is huge.
“Maybe once, twice in a career you have an opportunity to go and win a World Cup. The opportunity is huge and guys are really looking forward to it.
To do that, Morgan knows they will have to bat with a freedom that has not always been characteristic of England sides and bowl with skill and discipline at the death. But he felt that the personnel selected for this World Cup give England the best chance to score at the requisite pace to prosper on the good surfaces anticipated during the tournament.
“We’ve been happy with the majority of the times we’ve bowled,” Morgan said. “The first 40 overs have been fantastic in most games.
“An area of concern has been probably the last 10 overs, but that’s been an area of concern for a long time and is an area of concern for most teams.
“The more we can play with freedom the better. Trying to instil trust within everybody in the top seven is huge for us.
“It’s not alien to us to playing that way because the guys we’ve selected in the squad play that way naturally. But it certainly is different for us to play in these conditions and try and be as positive as we can as opposed to what we (are) used to.
“On a good batting surface a winning score is probably about 340 and par is about 300. It’s an area in which we’ve made strides. We’ve struggled to do this in the past, and I think with the batting line-up we have, it’s well within our capability to continue to play positively throughout 50 overs.
“As a fielding unit we’ve come together quite well and sort of grown in strides the more we’ve been together.”
England play two warm-up games in Sydney over the coming days: West Indies on February 9 and Pakistan on February 11. While the teams have the option to field all 15 players over the course of each game, the management is currently inclined to pick only 11 for each one in an attempt to replicate real match conditions.
Gary Ballance remains the only injury concern in the England camp. He returned to the nets in Perth and immediately took another blow on the finger broken earlier on the tour. While he is expected to take part in one of the warm-up matches, he is probably still a week away from match fitness and has to be considered an outsider for the opening World Cup match against Australia on February 14.
CURBING BAT SIZE ‘RIDICULOUS’
Eoin Morgan has dismissed as “ridiculous” the suggestion that the ICC should limit the size of bats.
David Richardson, the ICC chief executive, had told ESPNcricinfo earlier in the week that modern bats had “shifted the balance” in favour of batsmen and suggested that “the MCC and ICC will be looking at giving perhaps some consideration to placing limitations on the depth of a bat in particular.”
But Morgan, the England ODI captain, felt that several recent changes have favoured bowlers and had no time for Richardson’s suggestion.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Morgan said. “Absolutely ridiculous. The fact that you can concentrate on the bat size when the rules have been changed so that you bowl with two new balls.
“The ball is never any older than 25 overs and you have an extra man in the circle. That’s a point in itself. I’ve not come across a bat yet where I’ve said ‘this is ridiculous.'”
“If we front up and play as well as we can, absolutely we can beat Australia.”
