Cricket News: Eoin Morgan fails again, Will he be dropped as white ball captain?

And this became a consensus on whether he was the right man to lead or not. 

England played the last five-match T20I series against West Indies in which he captained only two matches in 2022, while the rest of the matches were captained by Moeen Ali as he got ruled out owing to a quadriceps injury. In the first two matches played, Morgan found himself stuck at the crease, failing to score from his bat. He scored 29 off 17 and 12 runs off 13 in the two matches. While failures are part and parcel in such a format, Morgan's form has been a matter of concern due to consistent failures.

His value as captain

Looking at Morgan's struggle as a batter, the next obvious trade-off revolves around his captaincy for the format and value he adds to the team. In his early days, he not only revolutionised English cricket for limited-overs but gave fans one of the most famous and enriching days in the history of English cricket at Lords in 2019. His calm presence combined with a knack for making wise decisions by taking the right calls at the right time. In six of his captaincy, England, whenever he won the toss, looked to bat first irrespective of the conditions. His desire to bat is proof of his desperation to chase regardless of anything and thus probably hindered their World Cup journey. 

A skipper that blows hot and cold

Morgan, over the years, has shown his volatility as a player. When in the form, he can carve open any bowling attack, and when struggling, he makes himself susceptible to the wicket at any ball. From averaging 38.55 in 2020 in T20 cricket, his average dropped to 17.17 in the following year. His strike rate also dipped considerably; hence, everyone is just hoping that he will soon regain his best form. 

When asked about his recovery before the T20 World Cup in Australia, he said, "I'm just old, I think! It takes longer to recover. I did play the two back-to-back games in Barbados, but then I got injured. You shouldn't get injured warming up as a batsman, but I pulled my quad warming up, which means my body just didn't recover at all."

England is set to embark on a new era across formats following the appointment of Brendon McCullum and Matthew Mott as the new red- and white-ball head coaches, and despite expressing his excitement at working with the two new arrivals, Morgan is realistic enough to recognise that his involvement could yet end abruptly.

Rashid Latif on Joe Root 

Joe Root has been in impeccable form recently. His 10 tons since January 2021 speaks volumes of his potential and sublime form with the bat. His recent performance in the Test Match against New Zealand and reaching a milestone of 10,000 Test runs has given birth to the talks of his possibility to break Sachin Tendulkar's once considered unshakable world record. With 15,921 runs, Sachin Tendulkar tops the chart of leading run-scorers in Test matches. The record looked unreachable until the 31-year-old batter recently reached the mark of 10,000 runs. 

Impressing the world and cricket fraternity to leave them in awe of his batting skills, he has become the talk of the town. 

Last week, former Australian captain Mark Taylor said, "Root has a minimum of five years left in him, so I think Tendulkar's record is very achievable. The Root is batting as well as I have ever seen him bat over the last 18 months to two years. He is in the prime of his career, so there are 15,000 runs-plus for him if he stays healthy."

Even Michael Vaughan hailed the batter and tweeted, "He gave it everything with very little support for the Red ball team under his watch .. then he had to deal with Covid times .. he still is and will be the game's best role model for many many years .. now enjoy being the senior player for many more seasons @root66."

And now the thought is backed by former Pakistan skipper and wicketkeeper Rashid Latif said, "If in the next 2-3 years, he [Joe Root] can score 1200-1300 runs, he can come close. By the time he is 34-35, he may have the hope that he can go past it. Even if he can't cross, he surely will come close,"

While everyone believes that Root has age on his side, scoring these many runs consistently for a few years requires a continuous scoring rate and energy to achieve the milestone. Sunil Gavaskar explained, "That is an insurmountable record because we are talking about another almost 6000 runs, which means you would have to score about 1000 runs or 800 runs over the next 8 years for you to get there. Joe Root has got age on his side (31 years old). He certainly can (break the record) if he can maintain that enthusiasm and go on. Joe Root is scoring 150+ scores, but it can take a toll on him, mentally and physically. (It is) not impossible, but very very difficult."