Eoin Morgan defends the Hundred amidst criticism

Eoin Morgan opened up about the criticizing comments that have been posed at the Hundred for England’s questionable performance in the Ashes. The ODI and T20 skipper of England defended the tournament fiercely as the cricketing analysts believe that the new format of the game was a major disruptor of the English cricketing ranks.

Morgan was heard quoting to talkSPORT’s Following On Podacast, “People that use that as an excuse don't want cricket. Test match cricket has always been the priority: it's the format for our elite players. Obviously, times at the moment have been tough down in Australia during the Ashes [but] they always are: we've lost the last two series 5-0 [sic] and it's no surprise that Australia are very, very good at home.”

He continued, “Given the prep the guys have had where since they've arrived in Australia, until the first Test match, it has hammered it down with rain… it's laughable to point the finger at the Hundred. The Hundred is an unbelievable success. Our formats in county cricket and the Hundred, in the way they're structured, it's exactly the same as Australia's.”

He was pretty vocal against the blame game as he quoted, “People need something to blame so they'll point at probably the furthest point to reality, because nobody wants to say: 'you know what, we haven't had the prep we would have liked, we probably haven't played as we'd have liked, and we've lost'. That happens in all formats, but I stress: Test match cricket has always been the priority."

England’s humiliating drubbing in the Ashes has prompted English Test skipper, Joe Root and the ECB chief executive, Tom Harrison for a paradigm shift in their red-ball format with the belief deeply ingrained that ever since 2015, the nation’s focus has deeply shifted to shorter formats of the game.

Morgan arrived in Barbados on Saturday alongside the English squad that is all set to play 5 T20I’s against the West Indies. The only player who is still set foot in West Indies was Sam Billings who had a gruelling affair in Hobart.

There is a new controversy in place that states Morgan has been given the full-strength squads for every series that he has played so far wherein Morgan ingeminated that there have been multiple occasions of the players missing out on white-ball series for the last two years.

Much to the surprise of Morgan, England has only been a part of two bilateral series in the shorter format of the games which has been against South Africa and India where the full English squads were available for selection.

Morgan quoted, “As a white-ball group, we've gone on tours and played in series at home where we haven't had our full-strength side available - that's been a constant theme for a number of years now. Obviously Test matches take priority and always do. Going through the exercise of giving younger guys opportunities is a really exciting time for us.”

He also added, “[Players] coming through county cricket, into the Hundred, playing in franchise tournaments around the world, are now going into our team ready to play international cricket. I'm excited about seeing some of the new players coming into the squad potentially get opportunities over the course of the five games, and hopefully winning a series.”

Morgan also highlighted the perspective in which the team’s preparations for the shorter formats were seen, as he was heard citing, “For the majority of my career, white-ball cricket was an afterthought - 95% of the time was spent around planning and prep for Test match cricket and then when we got to a World Cup, it was like, 'well, if we do well, great, but if we don't, it's fine'.”

He heaped praises on his team members, quoting, “With the skill level that guys are producing now on a consistent basis, proven over a long period of time, we're considered one of the best in the world. Trust me, I'd much rather be considered that than an afterthought."

However, Morgan himself has struggled a lot of late with an average of 17.71 in all the T20’s that he has played in 2021 with a major chunk of coming in the IPL.

He also shed some light about the breaks that he has taken as he quoted, “I've had three weeks off now. After this trip, there'll be a couple of months which I'll be taking off as well to recharge even more to get the run-in to what's going to be an unbelievably busy six months ahead, with the World Cup right at the back-end. We have a hectic summer and at the back-end of that we go to Pakistan for T20s as well, and then on to Australia, so there's a lot of cricket.”

Morgan was vocal about how he wants to drive the team to the top as he said, “[I have] a drive to want to leave the team in a far better place with the ambition of them continuing to get better down the line. I've really enjoyed playing with this group. I've loved captaining and, at this particular time in my career, I couldn't be having a better time.”

He concluded by saying, “Turning up to a World Cup as either favourites or joint-favourites or real strong contenders is something that excites me. It's something that I always think about because it makes me think about what we can change to get better, or how we can become more consistent as a side. Until that stops, I think things are good."