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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP

June 2, 2019

Eoin Morgan

West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, UK

Q. You went with a Mark Wood-Jofra partnership when you played here last month. Is there a good case for playing Mark Wood this match?
EOIN MORGAN: I think there's a good case for playing any of our bowlers. I think the wicket was a little bit different to the one probably that we're expecting tomorrow. However, we'll have to adapt to everything it throws up. It looks a little bit too paced maybe with a bit steeper bounce, having watched it yesterday. But again, if there was anything to exploit, hopefully we'll select the right team.

Q. You're back at the same strip where you scored over 400 twice in the last couple of years. If you do get the first chance again, are you looking to go big?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, I think to get anywhere near something like that, you have to play unbelievably well, and it starts with the very basics of getting ourselves into an innings and each batter starting and trying to establish a partnership. As regards setting heights and expectations, it all starts at that note.

Q. We saw last night the Joshua upset. Pakistan was thrashed on Friday, and they've lost 11 straight matches. Surely they can't cause an upset another sporting upset on Monday?
EOIN MORGAN: We prepare for Pakistan at their best. We've certainly seen them only two years ago, they were the best side in the world in the Champions Trophy. They turned us over, they turned India over, who were probably contenders, as well, to the Champions Trophy, so we'll be preparing as best we can for their A game.

Q. And since we last spoke to you, we've seen some of the other teams in action, Australia, New Zealand. What are your thoughts on what you've seen from the West Indies, as well?
EOIN MORGAN: I didn't see any of the Afghanistan-Australia game, but I did see some of the Sri-Lanka v New Zealand game in Cardiff. It did look very green at Cardiff, and New Zealand probably got better of the conditions and are a very good side so took advantage of them.

Q. How would you sum up your preparation going into the second match?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, it's good. We've had a very comfortable couple of days. We had a golf day, training day, and today is going to be a really light session in preparation for tomorrow. The guys need to be fresh, particularly throughout the whole group stages in order to get the best out of ourselves. We feel like we're in good form, but that doesn't give us the right to win the game. We have to go out on every match day and try to earn the right to win the game.

Q. Just in the early games of the tournament, what have you made of the amount of short-pitch bowling and the amount of wickets that that seems to be taking?
EOIN MORGAN: It could be a trend, probably over the last couple of years, it's been probably the shorter format of the game, it's been legs thin. This might be a trend for the tournament. It might be the nature of the pitches. The pitches look pretty good, like cross-seaming to the wicket, might be getting a better reaction than any of the bowling, potentially coming off two pace, which makes cross-patch shots a little bit harder. You have to take a higher risk, so you might see sides utilizing that from here on in.

Q. If it is a trend, thinking more as a batsman than a captain, how do you combat that and make sure you can keep scoring the runs at the rate that you want to?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, I think it's being happy with the game plan and committing fully to it, whether it's high risk, low risk or medium risk, just being happy with what you're trying to execute and go with the plan.

Q. If that is a trend, do you feel quite happy as a captain with the pace attack that you've got that you can kind of mix it with anyone?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, we're very happy with our squad. We do recognise that throughout the tournament, wickets will probably get slower and slower and we will need to maybe look at playing three spinners or look at more of a death bowler or a taller bowler into our squad or into our final 11. So we're looking at all aspects.

Q. Just the way the first game went, could it have gone any better for you as captain? I know you've only had a few days to sort of drink it in and move on.
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, we've probably -- well, we could have scored 350. That probably would have been -- topped the day off. But I was still happy with where we got to with the bat, probably just above par, and then bowled and fielded extremely well.

Q. I want to ask you about when it comes to selection, when you and Trev kind of sit down, is it purely just game by game, trying to win that game, or do you actually think about the workload that you're putting into players trying to make sure that you're keeping them fresh for challenges to come and so on and how the tournament will evolve?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, I think because of the big gap between the games, you can manage the workload in between the game days, so you can give guys days off or make sure they don't do too much, so that doesn't really come into it, it's more the opposition and the ground, so the performance that the individual might have had on the ground, so that comes to it, as well.

Q. Just with some of the coverage that the opening game got with Ben's catch being sort of almost top height on the news and some amazing photographs of that moment, as well, does that give you a little sneak peek into sort of the connection that you have a chance to make this summer?
EOIN MORGAN: I think it gives us a sneak peek into the potential that cricket has to grow and the exposure it might have over the next five, six weeks. I think when you have one of your allrounders, one of your best players on the side that puts in a performance like that in game with so many different personalities, kids, all the way through until like granddads, everybody can experience taking a great catch or getting runs or taking wickets or just one having one of those days everything goes right. I think that sets the tournament up really well, and obviously confidence within our camp when Ben is doing well, it rubs off on other people.

Q. There's been a bit of discussion about whether or not the 10:30 start as opposed to the normal 11:00 start here may have sort of had an impact in the early stages of the game. Do you think that?
EOIN MORGAN: The only game I've seen so far were it has is the New Zealand game. The wicket looked pretty green on TV, and if there's a bit of moisture around that early in the morning, it'll mean the side bowling first will have an advantage.

Q. Is that something you'll look at tomorrow, make a difference here from the last time you played starting at 11:00?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, definitely. It's well-known that we enjoy chasing. We don't mind setting, either, but we do enjoy chasing. There is a small advantage to it, just knowing what you're trying to get. It doesn't mean you're going to get it, but just psychologically knowing what you're going to get and how well you have to pace your chase.

Q. That extra exposure, that extra expectation, is that something you relish and this England team relishes?
EOIN MORGAN: It's not really something we focus on. It's something that will happen. We've talked about it. It'll happen throughout the tournament, whether we're doing well or we're getting hammered. Either way, it'll get a reasonable amount of publicity. So we'll try and stay pretty level. We'll try and do our best. We can't control what happens in the media.

Q. As well as Ben's catch, Jofra was the talk of that game, as well, his bowling speed. Do we need to be careful with him, not to overhype him too much and expect that every game?
EOIN MORGAN: Yes, definitely. Nobody can bowl fast every game. I think we've seen that with our fast bowlers in the past. It's just not possible. It's like when you have a high-quality batsman who averages over 50, he's not going to go out and get a hundred every game. It's just not possible. So yeah, take everything and every day as it comes when it comes to Jofra.

Q. The last World Cup you talked about the IPL. I think they wanted you here but you had said you'd rather stay there, you were learning things. Could you list what did you learn there? And secondly, you've got this great poker fence. Did you have to work on it, or were you always like this? (Laughter.)
EOIN MORGAN: The T20 World Cup are you talking about? Yeah.

So the group of players that we have at the moment that have played in the IPL in the past couple of years, it has given them great exposure, great experience playing against the best teams in the world under a huge spotlight, and in the last two years in particular, maybe three, those guys have gone from learning a huge amount at the IPL to actually going there and being MVP or dominating in certain stages of the tournament, and that for us is a huge step because we've gone from a team that had very few people going to the IPL, say six or seven years ago, and probably looked down upon if you went to encourage the goal, embracing it, dominating and then coming back, and that's breeding confidence in the changing room.

My face is always the same. (Laughter.) Can't change it.

Q. Obviously seeing a spell like Jofra's the other day against South Africa, how much does that as a captain make you think, if I can add Mark Wood, the Mark Wood we saw in the Caribbean to that, as a captain how much would that excite you?
EOIN MORGAN: It is exciting, but it's like saying can you add a Jason Roy 180 to Jos Buttler's 150, both of them off 70 or 80 balls. It might happen, and if it does, that would be awesome. But we'll just have to wait and see. Yeah, it's all on potential and probabilities.

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