Tom Reeves passes judgement on the England one-day captain after a dismal World Cup…
The Cricket World Cup has just reached its conclusion with Australia crowned champions.
I bet half of the England side, who were dumped out in the group stages in unceremonious fashion by Bangladesh, can’t even remember participating in the tournament.
It’s fair to say England massively underperformed and, at least on the playing side of things, the buck has to stop with the captain, Eoin Morgan. He was nothing short of woeful.
That may seem like a harsh assessment given that the 28-year-old was only appointed one-day skipper in December.
But the facts show, first and foremost, he underperformed as a batsman, scoring 90 runs at an average of 18.
Then whatever involvement he had in the selection process went badly wrong too, as the likes of Gary Ballance were persisted with for far too long, while Ravi Bopara and Alex Hales waited in the wings.
It would be unfair to only blame Morgan for the poor selections made throughout the tournament because this is largely meant to be the role of Peter Moores and the other ECB selectors.
However, what this does indicate is that Morgan is not prepared to lead off the field if it involves a confrontation – and his on-field leadership skills are minimal at best, as the World Cup proved.
In a group containing eventual finalists and co-hosts Australia and New Zealand, defeats were expected – but it was the manner of both losses in the first two matches, which set the tone for England’s abject World Cup.
James Taylor (98) and Steven Finn (5-71) were the only two players to offer any kind of fight in the comprehensive 111-run defeat to Australia. Both failed to perform on a regular basis throughout the rest of the tournament, though.
In the following game, Brendon McCullum crashed 77 off just 25 balls as New Zealand reached England’s minuscule total of 123 inside 13 overs.
Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler and Joe Root were the only other pair prepared to lead England to any form of respectability in the next four matches, while Morgan’s only real contribution of note was 46 (out of 303-8) against minnows Scotland.
Forget the fact England took the decision to replace Essex’s Alastair Cook as one-day captain far too late: what they desperately needed was more steel and resilience in the top order – something Cook almost undoubtedly would have provided.
Some have suggested it is still early days in Morgan’s reign.
But questions have to be asked of a man who hadn’t performed for the best part of a year before he took the captaincy and largely hasn’t performed since.
Say what you like about Cook, and many have over the past 12 months, but there is little doubt he is the better leader.
At his best, Morgan is a world-class batsman and is feared by bowling attacks around the world.
But many great players have been bad captains. Take Andrew Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen and even Allan Lamb as recent examples.
The sooner Morgan joins this particular list – of former captains – the better.