Published: Apr 21, 2016, 12:19 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 21, 2016, 12:19 PM (IST)
England skipper Eoin Morgan might have lead his team to an early exit in ICC World Cup 2015 but he has surely turned the tides for England landing up as runners-up in race of T20 World Cup 2016 and showing what England posses. Morgan is at the moment playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for IPL 2016 and has been pretty handy in the middle-order. His first half-century in this season of IPL came in when SRH needed someone to stand up and take the momentum ahead in the second game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), ultimately losing the battle. SRH are all set to play against newbie Gujarat Lions (GL) on Thursday at Rajkot. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: Gujarat Lions vs Sunrisers Hyderabad , 15th T20 Match, IPL 2016
In conversation with Times of India, Morgan spoke about his national side, influencer of IPL and more. Morgan credited IPL for tarnishing his game in T20 cricket and mentioned, “The IPL has helped my game in a huge way. The first 2-3 years I came to the IPL, I saw my game improve immensely. Rubbing shoulders with the best players in the field, you gain huge amount of confidence training alongside them, playing with them and seeking advice from them. I was lucky to play with the likes of Jacques Kallis, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and had the opportunity of watching them closely as they went about their business. As a youngster making his way into international cricket, it was a quite a big thing for me.”
Morgan also spoke about the change that has come in SRH considering the past few editions of IPL and said, “The biggest change in our team in the last year has been the way we played. The relaxed team atmosphere and an aggressive brand of cricket over the last 12 months have been the chief contributing factors of our success. Having said that, you can go into any team and build a strong culture—but you need to back it up with performances on the field and that’s exactly what our players have done. SRH is a unique team where a majority of their star players are lefthanders.”
SRH have a culmination of left-hand batsmen and bowlers, Morgan rubbishes the fact that they could be considered as USP and said, “I wouldn’t say so. One thing that’s going for us in this competition is that we have strong squad and we have good team culture. I guess that’s what the talking point of our side is.” When asked about his stroke play, he further added and ended the conversation saying, “To be honest, I haven’t been practicing those shots. I have been keeping an open mind and looking to play as naturally as I can in this tournament. Obviously, one needs to practice those shots before you play them in a game or else it can go wrong.”
