Modern Morgan can help England clinch ODI series win over Proteas
Batsman has developed his game to excel in shorter formats
On the upside, England are building a very good nucleus to their one-day team and have excellent interaction throughout the batting order. I expect Jonathan Trott to edge out Joe Denly and open with Andrew Strauss to provide a right-hand and left-hand combination. Kevin Pietersen will bring the flair factor, Eoin Morgan will improvise and Luke Wright and Matt Prior can hit the ball very hard.
When they are fit, England will also have runs in the lower order through Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann. This is the core of a team that could be very successful for England in one-day cricket.
Feeling good
Looking back now you feel it was a good thing that England were hammered 6-1 by the Australians in the 50-over NatWest Series that followed the Ashes. It made them realise they have to look at the one-day format differently, play more dynamic cricket and powerful shots.
You sense that there is a real confidence among the squad and in Morgan, England have a player who is the epitome of the modern era.
He is a young guy who has developed his game specifically for the shorter format. The difference between him and Alastair Cook is stark.
Like me, Cook has been a product of a system that produces players for the longer form of the game. Test cricket is what I concentrated on and the same goes for Cook. He will have to do an awful lot of work to turn himself into a player for the modern game.
He also has to ignore all this talk about captaincy. He should focus completely on his batting because this is a big tour for him.
If the captaincy does arise in Bangladesh he will be in a much better position to capitalise on it. If he has a bad series, though, he will be back to square one.
— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2009
