ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

October 29, 2021

Eoin Morgan

Dubai International Stadium

England

Pre Match Media Conference

Q. Eoin, many congratulations on your start to this World Cup, absolutely sensational, two wins out of two. This obviously is a game now between two of three teams that have got 100 percent record in the Super 12 games. Just give me your assessment of how pivotal this game could be in terms of reaching the semifinal.

EOIN MORGAN: Here I think it's probably going to be one of our most difficult games in this group stage. Australia are a very strong side. They've gone 2 for 2, very much like us, and they've started the tournament well.

The one thing we're most proud of so far is our level of performance and intensity has been pretty good in the two games that we've played. Obviously, the challenge is continuing that for our next three games in pursuit of getting through to that next phase of the tournament.

Q. Eoin, can I ask you about the strengths of Australia. Of course we saw David Warner finding some form with a great knock against Sri Lanka. Your thoughts on this Australian side.

EOIN MORGAN: Yes, Australia are a very strong side. Obviously coming into the tournament, they probably would be considered joint second favourites, along with us. They're a side that we know pretty well. We played against them a lot over two or three years. So looking forward to a really good game.

Q. Just two final ones. Can I just ask you about a couple of your players. Of course, Jason Roy had a landmark day against Bangladesh with a man of the match performance, and Tymal Mills was absolutely exceptional. Just talk to me about those two stories and those two individuals because, of course, if Jason has a big tournament, England should do well. And Tymal Mills, his story in recent months and years is amazing, isn't it?

EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, it's amazing. I'm going to start with Tymal. The journey he's been on is one of the most challenging we've ever seen anybody who's played in an England shirt for as long as he has. It's obviously very tough being a fast bowler, dealing with injury and different challenges throughout your career, but I think he's had some of the most arduous challenges to overcome.

Full credit to him, as you can see at the moment, he's bowling pretty well and is very effective for us. He's also a great team man to have around, which obviously lends to our team culture and team morale.

Jason has been part of the squad now since 2015. He completely embodies everything that this side is about with regards to the style of cricket we play and the people that we want to beat and as role models. The way he's performed, particularly in the last game, was outstanding on a challenging wicket against a challenging team. So hopefully he continues his fine form throughout this tournament.

Q. My final question, I just wondered ahead of this game, have you got any anti-racism messages that you're going to embrace. Obviously, before the last game with the ICC, they informed you you couldn't wear your anti-racism T-shirt. Then we have the Quinton De Kock situation a couple of days ago getting in a muddle with South Africa over whether he had the right to take a knee or not. And then we had the Yorkshire announcement on the Rafiq matter, which I thought many people felt was underwhelming. Could I get your view, is there a danger, globally and domestically, that cricket might have a problem with a consistent approach to tackling racism?

EOIN MORGAN: I hope not. Certainly from our side of things, not being allowed to have our moment of unity before a game is just something that we've talked about during the two games that we've played. Later this afternoon we're going to talk about it again because, if we're not allowed to, I suppose, take our stance against all discriminations, we need to try and find something else that makes a difference for this period of time.

Obviously, we're allowed to do it in a bilateral series, both home and away, given permissions that have been accepted in different countries probably over the last year or so. So we'll speak as a team and try and come up with something that we can do.

Q. Can I just start by asking about Mark Wood and Tom Curran are? Will they be available tomorrow?

EOIN MORGAN: Yes, they're progressing very well. I suppose from where they were the first game, they've come a long way. We're going to make a call on that tomorrow to see how training is, and then tomorrow we'll take a look as well to make a call.

Q. Is there any concern on night matches, especially in Dubai, the team that chases seems to have a bit more of an advantage, making the toss-up more crucial.

EOIN MORGAN: There's always an advantage in chasing, like statistically, regardless of the country that you're playing in. We've only played one night game so far, and there actually was no dew for the whole evening, even though the game didn't go the whole duration.

Other games that I have watched, there have been a considerable difference in batting first. It's obviously just a different challenge. I think, with that, traditionally day games you win the toss and bat first, set a token. The sun bakes the wicket, the wicket changes. But we haven't seen that either.

So I don't know if it's the standard that's being played or if it's more of an advantage than it normally is.

Q. Both teams have a world class leg spinner and they've both done really well in the match in Dubai, and they've both made great progress the last year in matches between the teams. Do you think how the batters fare against them tomorrow could determine the outcome or could go a long way to determine the outcome?

EOIN MORGAN: I don't think purely on two players the game stands alone. I think both sides will be strong. We played unbelievably competitive games over the years, and even more recently, 50-over games and T20 games we've played, two good strong sides going at it, which is always good entertainment and great to play as well. So I don't think rests solely on their particular shoulders.

Q. With Sri Lanka yesterday with Australia, they sort of seemed to target their fifth bowler a little bit. They went for over 50 with Maxwell and Stoinis. Is that going to be potentially a plan for England as well?

EOIN MORGAN: From what I watched, the Sri Lanka player played pretty hard against all of them. I don't think it was a conscious effort to go against one or two of their bowlers.

I think on any given day, if you go in with a preemptive view on targeting somebody or one person, it normally doesn't allow you to take in information during the game form and have people actually bowling in reality as opposed to just a preconceived idea.

Q. Just going back to the question of what gesture you might do before the game, is there any reason you might simply not carry on taking a knee as you have in the first two matches?

EOIN MORGAN: Here, I think it's a chance. One thing we've always talked about, when we talk about collective message being more powerful, is that everybody agrees to what we're buying into. When we initially talked about our culture piece, we talked at length and didn't really want to commit to anything unless everybody wanted to do it because we feel it's the best way to raise awareness, educate, and I suppose come across with a more powerful message.

Again, we'll talk at length about that today, but also we are quite restricted in what we can do. So there's a chance that might not happen.

Q. And does it depend on what Australia do, or will you make your own decision regardless?

EOIN MORGAN: No, we'll talk about it as a team, and we'll make a decision. Then if we, I suppose, come to something that can be supported by Australia, we'll obviously speak to them and see what their thoughts are as well.

Q. Just wondered if you thought if this match could have any psychological effect at all on the Ashes that's coming up later this winter, even if it's small.

EOIN MORGAN: None whatsoever.

Q. None whatsoever, okay. So unleashing Mark Wood, for example, might not be advantageous a couple of months down the line if he does well?

EOIN MORGAN: I've played test matches and 50-over and T20 for a long period of time. There was a time and a place where 50-over cricket was closely aligned with test match cricket and the way that it was played, particularly top of the order and how your quicks bowl. But I think white-ball cricket has moved so far away from red-ball cricket that there's just -- it's day and night between a psychological blow in one format in comparison to the other.

Q. I just wondered what you thought the key to playing against and being successful against Australia was. You played against them 70 times in your career now, which is quite a lot of cricket. What have you learned over the course of those 70 matches that can inform you and help you and the team going into this game tomorrow?

EOIN MORGAN: I suppose you learn a helluva lot about how they play their cricket, how disciplined they can be, and I suppose when they get on top, they can be a difficult side to play against when you try and wrestle momentum back.

I think the challenge for us is that we're not playing at home. So trying to adapt our style of play to conditions over here to try and win the game. So I think using a little bit of that experience I talked about to try and achieve that and try to unravel the game as it unfolds according to conditions as opposed to just against the opposition, I think is important.

Q. It sounds to me like getting yourselves out in front early is a really good ploy, but you'd much rather have them try to wrestle momentum from you rather than the other way around?

EOIN MORGAN: I think early momentum in any game can go a long way to winning a game, but like we witnessed a play over the last couple of years, if we don't manage to gain that momentum, I think we have guys that can either wrestle it back or counterpunch. I think that's probably what makes us a difficult side to play against. We always have a hand or a trick to play regardless of the situation that we're in.

Q. Do you get excited the night before? Is it a bit like Christmas eve for you, about to face them with everything? A lot of fans will probably getting quite excited tonight.

EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, for a night game the following day, not as much. It's probably more so on the day of the game. If we were playing early morning tomorrow, possibly midday time, yeah, you'd be excited the night before the game. But because it's a 6:00 start tomorrow, it's a chilled evening, and we turn the page tomorrow and look at the task ahead.

Q. Just looking back at the last game against Bangladesh, as well as England played, it was quite clear Bangladesh underperformed, flat in the field. In that context, how easy is it to judge England's performance?

EOIN MORGAN: Quite easily actually. I find it quite natural for me to be able to attach emotion from logical things that are going on out there in the game. I think you've probably been a little bit unfair to Bangladesh. I thought we played really, really well. I thought we were disciplined with the ball. We get really good lengths. We created opportunity when -- not when it came about, but when it wasn't necessarily there. I think we forced them to make mistakes by playing really well, and sometimes that can look the way that you're describing it.

But I thought even in the chase, the Bangladesh side, how they would try and win a game is predominantly with a spin, just chopping and changing and creating a little bit of pressure in different ways. But given how we bowled and how we batted, we negated, I suppose, any pressure being built. Then on top we recognized the opportunity to drive things.

Q. Just one more question about that game. Obviously, you know Shakib very well, skippering with him at KKR. How important was that experience in terms of devising plans against his bowling and his batting?

EOIN MORGAN: Probably not significant at all. Shakib has been around for a long, long time. He's been one of the best all-rounders in the world for a long, long time. He very rarely has bad days. He's that good of a player. I knew this before playing alongside him, and playing alongside him just makes you love the guy even more. He's a true lover of the game in every sense. His favourite format is test match cricket, and he's extremely passionate about playing for Bangladesh.

So all of our plans didn't really revolve around anything that I picked up at Calcutta.

Q. You mentioned you had a chance to watch Australia last evening. Have you had a chance to watch much of the other games? Anything in particular that stands out? You looking forward to facing anyone in the semifinals?

EOIN MORGAN: I watched Scotland play Namibia the other night, the back end of the chase. I think that's it. I haven't watched a lot, to be honest. The hotel here doesn't have the channel to watch the games.

Q. Not a chance to watch Pakistan?

EOIN MORGAN: No, I've not seen any of Pakistan.