England’s 2019 World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan on Friday has ruled himself out from the race of becoming the next men’s Test captain and has instead backed all-rounder Ben Stokes to take up the job after Joe Root’s resignation earlier in April.
Whoever becomes England’s Test captain has got the tough job to get the side on track with collective performances in all departments of the game. In its last 17 Tests, England has emerged victorious just once and lost the Ashes 4-0 in Australia followed by a 1-0 defeat in West Indies.
“Absolutely not, no. I’m very happy with the role that I play within the white-ball team and English cricket at the moment. It has been the part of my career that I’m most proud of. My career is firmly focused on World Cups, and hopefully sustaining what we’ve built over the last six years is probably going to be the most important part of what I leave behind eventually. I haven’t played red-ball cricket for a long time. I wouldn’t have any interest in the job. I would be no good at it,” Morgan told Sky Sports.
Morgan, who played a Test match in February 2012 against Pakistan in Dubai, has backed Stokes to take the role of captaining England in the longest format of the game.
“Obviously Ben is a fantastic player, a brilliant leader, though he doesn’t need to have the captain’s armband on to the lead as he does. The experience of the World Cup final here (at Lord’s) really showed his true colors in the way that he led from start to finish – and throughout the whole tournament as well,” he said.
“He’d certainly be a candidate. I think it would be hard to turn down the captaincy. It’s a privileged position to be in. Obviously, circumstances have to be right, but most people who want to take red-ball cricket forward would like to take it on.”
Morgan revealed that he had a meeting with the new ECB managing director of men’s cricket, Rob Key, and felt that splitting coaching roles on the basis of formats would be the road ahead as England gears up to appoint the next coaches for the men’s team. “Just the demands of the game as a whole now are huge, there is almost no break. It’s such a big ask for one man to do the job.”
