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Our team culture is stronger than ever: Morgan


Bangladeshpost
Published : 23 May 2019 01:55 PM | Updated : 04 Sep 2020 11:47 PM

Eoin Morgan says that the process of whittling England's World Cup squad down to the final 15-man party was "the toughest decision I've ever been a part of", but believes that he personally, and his team as a whole, have never been better equipped to make the big calls, having grown together in the four years since the 2015 campaign, reports ESPN.

"I wouldn't say it's been smooth, I'd say we've been better equipped at dealing with anything that's cropped up, certainly as a group," said Morgan. "For me as a captain, being more experienced, and having been through four years of being captain, our prep and planning has been excellent and the guys have responded to that by performing on a consistent basis, probably more so for last two years than first two."

Asked if the Hales situation was the sort of crisis that would have derailed past England World Cup 

"We hadn't planned exactly for that, we'd planned for instances when the [team] culture had been tested or individually we'd been tested," Morgan said. "There's still loads of things that we've planned for that might continue to crop up throughout the World Cup.

"Our values as a team include the words 'courage', 'respect', and 'unity', symbolising the three lions on our cap, and taking that cap forward across all three formats and all squads," he added.

"Over a period of time everyone can relate to it on and off the field. For some people it may only be words, but for us as international cricketers, travelling around all the time, the one thing that's constant right from the beginning of your journey is your cap. It's a gentle reminder of how much responsibility you have, and the privileged position you are constantly in to make the most of that."

"It was the toughest decision I've ever been a part of, certainly with this group," said Morgan. "To leave two guys out, one who has been around for the last four years and been a big part of everything we've done on and off the field, and the other is an exceptionally talented cricketer. It's unfortunate for those who missed out but it was the right call."

"We had a conversation last night," Morgan said, "explaining the fact that there are nine group-stage games and the fact that we have four fast bowlers, and one of them is likely to get injured. It happens.

"And I had the same conversation with Joe. We haven't had many injuries in the batting department for a long time, so we need to plan for everything, given that they might come into play straightaway, so they need to be prepared for that."

"I wouldn't say that we feel fearless, probably two years ago we felt more fearless, because we were quite young in our growth as a team," he said. "We've had two more years' experience on top of that, and we are better at coping and adapting to scenarios and recognising different situations throughout a game. I wouldn't say that's fearless."

"One of the biggest learning things that came out of that was that it probably came a little bit early for us," he said. "We probably didn't realise how good we were and how poor we were on slow wickets. Since then, we've improved our play at both home and away, and on wickets that don't necessarily suit our planning."