Dubai: Eoin Morgan feels England can take a leaf out of India’s success story in Australia to win the Ashes against Australia, which begins at the Gabba on Wednesday.
Australia are flying high after winning their maiden Twenty20 World Cup and England’s shorter format captain feels that they still can achieve success against the hosts. “The Ashes is the pinnacle for a lot of our players still and winning an Ashes away from home is incredibly tough to do. But I think what India have achieved last year, a lot of team now India have achieved last year in Australia, it gives a lot of team can hope to get that right and use it against Australia,” Morgan, England’s white ball captain, said recently during the announcement for the second edition of the Ultimate Kricket Challenge (UKC), which will be held at the Coca-Cola Arena in February 2022.
India, after being outplayed by Australia in the first Test and getting bundled out for their lowest Test score of 36, returned strongly to win the four-match series 2-1.
England have shown that they have the skills and the temperament to win on the big stage, but they have now frittered away two golden chances from a seemingly winning position.
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England gave away 24 runs in four balls in the final against the West Indies during the 2016 Twenty20 World Cup final against the West Indies in Kolkata and conceded 60 runs in three overs to lose against New Zealand in the semi-final at the Shaikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi during this edition of the Twenty20 World Cup.
Is it a brain freeze during crucial stages that the team suffers from?
“No,” he vehemently denied it. “These guys are always trying to improve. The death bowling is the hardest thing to do in T20 cricket, particularly when the conditions have been favouring the batters. We will strive to improve on all aspects of the game, potentially our fielding little bit of our batting that could have contributed along the way.”
It’s still a mystery how New Zealand continue to stun the favourites without any stars in the ranks. And it’s not just one format, but on all formats they have been a major force. The Black Caps have won the Test Championship and narrowly lost the 50-over World Cup to England on a countback of boundaries. They reached the final this time around and subsequently went to India and held the hosts for a draw in the first Test before losing the second in Mumbai yesterday.
“They’re [New Zealand] an incredible team and over the years have been led by incredible leaders Kane Williamson, Brendon McCollum and Daniel Vettori. Before that even Stephen Fleming was exceptional. It’s the team cohesion and getting people to work together is their key to success.
“It proves that you don’t need outstanding individuals in order to win games. When you play as a team and you work towards a common goal, it is more powerful than just having one or two big-name players. As an England team, we’ve worked hard to try and use that in our favour also, hopefully, produce some attacking cricketers at the same time.”