Eoin Morgan Test cricketer

SSK

It just seems like he's doing a bit of a bounce these days as opposed to staying in his crouch and then rising to play a shot.

djimi

Even with my somewhat limited coaching ability I can see that there is a lot that is very wrong about Morgans trigger movement. There is far too much going on, nothing is steady and his head is all over the place. A top level bowler wont be long figuring out how to exploit this, and I think its going to hold him back if he really wants to make it as a test batsman.

Cardinal Richelieu

Well then if he has a flaw in his batting for test cricket would a test playing Ireland want him back?:D

kryogen

djimi wrote: »

Even with my somewhat limited coaching ability I can see that there is a lot that is very wrong about Morgans trigger movement. There is far too much going on, nothing is steady and his head is all over the place. A top level bowler wont be long figuring out how to exploit this, and I think its going to hold him back if he really wants to make it as a test batsman.

His action is without a doubt going to hold him back at the highest level.

Its what he does naturally though unfortunately. Katich has the irritating action of walking across his stumps as the ball gets bowled, top class bowlers will take advantage of things like this.

KP weaknesses in his defense that are exploited at times.

Ponting has an excellent action, Clarke too. Strauss when on form has a great stance, it is no accident that those with fidgety stances/actions have less success in the Test arena. Bowlers have a long time to figure out how to get you out.

In the limited overs game its not as important, but the top guys will still exploit it more often then not.

I like Morgan, always have, but he needs a lot of work to become a Test batsman good enough to play for England. It is his stance that helps him with some of his more unorthodox shots though too!

He is a great 20/20 batsman I think, a very good One Day batsman, but a poor Test batsman.

Dozen Wicked Words

So, as expected Eoin Morgan has been dropped for Englands tour of Sri Lanka.

England coach Andy Flower said: "He's had a tough tour of the UAE, we've been here for two months and it's been hard work for him.

"He has got some work to do I think on his Test game - that's going to be quite difficult for him considering his next cricket is going to be IPL [Indian Premier League] cricket.

"When he comes back he'll have limited exposure to opportunities to get four-day cricket under his belt so he has got to go away and give some serious thought to his method in Test cricket.

"I still think he has a very exciting future in Test cricket, he's only 25 years old and he's a very talented player, a very confident player and a very dangerous player."

BBC Story

djimi

Sadly this is not a surprise. He needs to go back to Middlesex and spend the summer working hard at the 4 day game. He really needs to find someone to work with him to sort out his batting action as well.

SSK

Yeah no surprises and Flower doesn't seem happy at all with him going to play IPL instead of going back to Middlesex. If someone like Taylor or Bairstow gets a shot at the test team over the summer and does well it could be a long road back to test cricket for Morgan.

And just to highlight what I was talking about in relation to his crouch earlier, look at the video below from 2009. I have no idea why his stance has gone as bizarrely crouched as it is now but he looks far more in control in that innings than any I've seen from him lately

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUL8nl57StI

djimi

The stance he has in that video is a lot more like what he should be using now. This nonsense of bouncing around as the bowler is coming in is doing him no good whatsoever; it goes against every fundamental aspect of a batting stance and I really do not see how he benefits from it (except maybe if he wants to play the odd outrageous ODI shot).

Dozen Wicked Words

Very good article in the Guardian Cricket Supplement about people writing Morgan off already. Interesting stats about the start of Mathew Haydens Test career, and ultimately his fantastic success he had.

That failure has precipitated the crazy and fairly widespread assumption that Morgan's Test career is over at the age of 25. At the same age, Matthew Hayden had scored 261 runs at an average of 21.75 and would not play Test cricket again until he was 28..........Hayden ended up with 8,625 Test runs at 50.73

Its a very good read, link to whole article HERE

djimi

Id hope that noone is writing off Morgan just yet! I feel he has issues that need sorting but I have never had any doubt in my mind that Morgan has the right mentality and temprement to be a quality test batsman, and I am hoping that he will now go back to Middlesex, work hard with the coaches and come back better equiped to succeed at test cricket.

booth70

His likely replacements at 6 are Ravi Bopara and Samit Patel...lets be honest neither of them are going to set the cricketing world alight and I can't see either of them cementing the no 6 spot on the Sri Lankan tour.

If Morgs gets his priorities right and really wants his Test place back all he has to do is make some runs for Middlesex early season and not the Kolkata Knight Riders!! But with the money on offer for what is really a few weeks of fun I wouldn't blame him either if he puts the IPL first:)

full_irish

Does anyone think that Morgan might (say in a year or so's time) give up on his dream to play test cricket w/ Engerland and come back to play for Ireland if he hasn't got a sniff of a test squad again?

Or would he happy to be T20/ODI-er with a nation that can actually compete for trophies.... what say ye?

djimi

full_irish wrote: »

Does anyone think that Morgan might (say in a year or so's time) give up on his dream to play test cricket w/ Engerland and come back to play for Ireland if he hasn't got a sniff of a test squad again?

Or would he happy to be T20/ODI-er with a nation that can actually compete for trophies.... what say ye?

I think that while he is still being selected to play one day cricket he will continue to play for England. I honestly dont see him playing for Ireland again for a long time; he would need to not play for England in all forms of the game for 4 years before he can play for Ireland, and I really dont see any reason to think that he will make a conscious decision not to play ODI cricket for England for the next 4 years just so he can come back to play for Ireland.

kryogen

It really should be stickied how long a player needs to wait to play for Ireland again after playing for another country, in all forms of the game!

full_irish

I feel its a bit **** that you can swip/swap at all... without use of the glorious 'granny rule' that has given us many a sports-star in the round ball game.

But then we would be without quite a few players ourself if this was the case, so it seems to swing and roundabouts really at the end of the day.

kryogen

full_irish wrote: »

I feel its a bit **** that you can swip/swap at all... without use of the glorious 'granny rule' that has given us many a sports-star in the round ball game.

But then we would be without quite a few players ourself if this was the case, so it seems to swing and roundabouts really at the end of the day.

round ball game?

Cricket? Tennis? Basketball? Baseball?

full_irish

kryogen wrote: »

round ball game?

Cricket? Tennis? Basketball? Baseball?

Ah yes, cus Ireland are well known for our prowess in tennis, bball and especially baseball!!

Out of interest, how many more round ball sports other than the obvious I was referring to??

simonrooneyzaga

booth70 wrote: »

His likely replacements at 6 are Ravi Bopara and Samit Patel...lets be honest neither of them are going to set the cricketing world alight and I can't see either of them cementing the no 6 spot on the Sri Lankan tour.

Good point about his replacements... remember the last time Rav went to Sri Lanka?


Innings by innings list
Runs Mins BF 4s 6s SR Pos Dismissal Inns Opposition Ground

Start Date
8 26 22 0 0 36.36 6 caught 2 v Sri Lanka Kandy 1 Dec 2007 Test # 1851
34 58 42 7 0 80.95 7 lbw 4 v Sri Lanka Kandy 1 Dec 2007 Test # 1851
0 1 1 0 0 0.00 6 bowled 1 v Sri Lanka Colombo (SSC) 9 Dec 2007 Test # 1853
DNB - - - - - - - 3 v Sri Lanka Colombo (SSC) 9 Dec 2007 Test # 1853
0 7 7 0 0 0.00 6 caught 2 v Sri Lanka Galle 18 Dec 2007 Test # 1854
0 1 1 0 0 0.00 6 run out 3 v Sri Lanka Galle 18 Dec 2007 Test # 1854


In fact, apart from his run of 3 centuries out of 3 innings in back to back series against the West Indies in 2009, he has failed to pass 50!