	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP

June 24, 2019

Eoin Morgan

London, England, UK

Q. What's the latest with Jason Roy, please.
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, Jason went for a scan this morning. Positive news. He won't be fit for tomorrow. We'll monitor his progress during the week and assess him then as that unfolds.

Q. How confident are you that he can be back for the India game?
EOIN MORGAN: I think to put one game on it, I don't think it's sensible. I think let's just see how it goes.

Q. And how big a loss is he?
EOIN MORGAN: He's Jason Roy. Of course he's a big loss. He's an outstanding performer before us, the way he plays. Epitomises the way we play as a group. He's been in the team for a very long time.

Q. And how do you feel about not having him? Are you confident you've got the batting up top?
EOIN MORGAN: I'm confident we have the batting covered. James Vince is an extremely talented, gifted player. You can see that from just watching him.

Q. Any concerns that Vince hasn't gone on yet, hasn't got a score?
EOIN MORGAN: No, not at all. We have every faith in him to go on and get a score at some stage, to continue playing in his own way. It's important that he does that.

Q. And with two defeats now, how crucial is it that you win this game? Is it must-win yet?
EOIN MORGAN: No, it's not must-win yet. We don't need to win every game to get to the semifinal. It's another game where we try and produce a performance that's worthy of inning at lords against Australia.

Q. Has confidence been affected at all by those defeats?
EOIN MORGAN: No, I mean, naturally guys are upset. They are very excited about getting back on the park tomorrow to try and produce something that everybody's used to seeing us play, and if that means that we win the game, great.

Q. Finally, from me: What reception do you expect Steve Smith and David Warner to get? And can the crowd help you; be a 12th man, if you like?
EOIN MORGAN: I'm not expecting anything. I think fans and supporters up and down the country will have different reactions, as they will around the world. So yeah, let's just see.

Q. Just picking up on that, do you see it as your role in any way to give any kind of indication or instruction to the crowd about how they should behave with the Australians?
EOIN MORGAN: No. No.

Q. They paid a lot of money, I suppose they can do what --
EOIN MORGAN: They do. And sport is -- sport is beautiful in many ways because it attracts people from far and wide. I think people can get carried away with sort of home support and away support. I think throughout the tournament, everybody has had support at the ground, if not more so than the home team.

So it will probably be the same instance tomorrow.

Q. Over the last few years, you proved as a captain and as a one-day team that you can do almost anything in this format of the game. The results are there to hopefully give you that confidence. Do you feel that you have to -- after what happened in the last game, just prove that you can win matches under pressure, because that's a different element in the World Cup, isn't it.
EOIN MORGAN: No. We've done that throughout the World Cup already. Guys have performed under pressure for a very long time. They have performed under pressure of being favourites for the last two years in series that we've gone in, both away from home and at home, and have no question mark about producing under pressure.

Q. Now that you've had time to reflect on the chase against Sri Lanka --
EOIN MORGAN: Sorry. That sounds very funny with the echo.

Q. Now that you've had time to reflect on it, is your view that you didn't show enough now or that you didn't go hard enough at it from the start?
EOIN MORGAN: Well, it's neither one or the other. I think the innings for us never flowed; that was sort of epitomised in both innings with the wickets and no partnership at any stage flowed, which became a challenge and a challenge we weren't good enough to counter. At no stage did we get a big enough partnership to chase down that total.

Q. Sorry to go back on the other subject, with the booing Jonny Bairstow came out and said it's a bit of double standards by Australia to ask the crowd not to boo. Considering what Australia did to Stuart Broad and the way they rallied that up. What do you make of Jonny's comments and what's your view on that?
EOIN MORGAN: Don't have a view on it.

Q. Do you think -- do you think his comments are fair? What do you make of what he had to say about that?
EOIN MORGAN: I think every instance is different. Every team is different. Year on year, particularly when we play against Australia, it's a different set of circumstances. I believe that was a long time ago under different regime, but I don't know.

Like the answer earlier, you don't know how sports fans are going to react. I think they are entitled to have their own view. Just because punishment was handed out and the two guys served their punishment, doesn't mean they are going to be accepted back into the cricket community straightaway with open arms. It will take time.

Q. You know this pitch better than most. It looks quite green. Might that convince you to play the extra seamer, change the balance of the side potentially?
EOIN MORGAN: There's a chance. Yesterday the pitch was quite green, as well. I don't know if you watched the game, but certainly today it did look a little bit green. I think there's a lovely covering of grass over it. Probably a little more consistent than has been in previous years, and depending on the weather overnight, because there is weather expected, it will probably affect the decision tomorrow, yeah.

Q. Do you think nerves played a part in those two defeats England have had so far in the tournament, and if they did, what can you do as captain or as a management team to sort of release those feelings?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, I don't think nerves played a part at all.

Q. You've played quite a lot against Australia in the last couple of years, home and away, really strong record. Do you think this is a pretty decent match-up for England, this England/Australia fixture at the moment, the way the two teams are set up?
EOIN MORGAN: I think it's a good match-up for both teams. It's normally a really good game. The games we've played against them in the last two years, probably the score line hasn't been as fair as both sides have played. I think the way that both sides play lends itself to a good game of cricket, as well. So it will be a challenge for both sides I think.

Q. Are they potentially, the difference between their best day and their worst day is less than some of the teams like Sri Lanka and Pakistan, a little more predictable perhaps what they will bring to the table?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, probably predictable in the same way that we are and because we play against them so often, we sort of know them inside out, like they do us.

So it is a matter of producing on the day, yeah.

Q. You talk about the predictability and having faced each other a lot. How much of a difference does it make to have Jofra this time? I know the Australians have been talking about him quite a bit, and just how you use him and how you inject him into the attack.
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, like Mark Wood, very similar roles. Both give you flexibility, with the new ball or first change, and at the end and in the middle, give you options to change the pace of the game. Similar to the way Australia use theirs, use them as wicket-taking options and I think we look to do the same. We have done throughout the tournament so far.

Q. Did it give you something, I guess, just a bit more than you've had in the past against Australia; that they wouldn't necessarily have faced as much as the other bowlers?
EOIN MORGAN: Oh, they have guys that bowl, like one of their strongest points is their pace bowling. So they are probably used to facing it from more so than other teams that we've played against.

Q. You've been involved in lots of matches against Australia. You understand Ashes cricket and the special rivalry, I guess. Before the first match, you told the players to embrace when things are different, like the South Africa game. Will you be telling them the same thing here, and is this different because it's Australia?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, I don't think it is different. I think it would be -- I do; playing against Australia is different, but the feeling of playing against Australia I think is nullified because we played them so often. If guys had not of played against them a lot over the last, say, three years or four years, it would feel different, and it would feel, you know, a little bit unknown.

For a lot of our guys, it was the first World Cup game that they played in. A home World Cup, especially, that was the feeling that was different against South Africa, but I don't think tomorrow will feel that different.

Q. You've not lost back-to-back 50-over games in this four-year cycle. What is it that allows you to respond so successfully to setbacks?
EOIN MORGAN: Primarily it's trying to keep things as simple as possible. Being truthful and honest with our previous performance and trying to learn and rectify the performance almost immediately. And I think because we have quite a strong identity in the way that we play, I wouldn't say that we can flip back to it immediately, but it almost becomes a little bit easier and less confusing to guys, the direction in which they need to go.

Q. Can you say what truth and honesty you discussed following the game in Leeds?
EOIN MORGAN: Yeah, I mean, we didn't question the wicket. We didn't question the opposition, the nature of the chase. It wasn't an easy chase. It was something that we all found challenging, but need to be better at. Particularly, if we do get to the latter stages of the tournament, we might play on a wicket very similar to that.

Q. You say that you haven't got to win every match, which is true, but there are circumstances under which you might have to win two of the last three games. Do you look at that sort of situation and how the teams are performing, and which teams might be a danger to you as you approach the last three matches?
EOIN MORGAN: No. No, no. Honestly, we're in control of our performances from here on in, so yeah, we don't need to look elsewhere yet.

Q. Slight pressure going into these last three games because of the unexpected defeat against Sri Lanka, and then Jason Roy also not there. So do you feel that this is a time for the guys to step it up and show their character?
EOIN MORGAN: Well, every game is. Every game's a one-off game. It's a chance to prove ourselves. It's a chance to play the way we've been playing, if allowed to.

Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297