Eoin Morgan On Stokes and Root Joining ODI Side: England’s World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan believes that the nation’s Test captain Ben Stokes and star-batter Joe Root should make a return to the ODI side for the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Root and Stokes have been two of the best cricketers of their generation. On the one hand, there is Joe Root, who might be the greatest English Test cricketer ever and is on the path to breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s runs record in the format. On the other is Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain, who has continued the legacy of great pace-bowling all-rounders for his country.
While the two have been a regular part of the Test side for the Three Lions, they have not played a single ODI for their country since the disappointing 2023 Cricket World Cup. England went into that competition as the defending champions but finished seventh out of 10 teams, winning only three out of their nine games.
English cricket will now be seeing a lot of changes in the coming months stemming from just one decision. The popular and successful head coach of the Test side, Brendon McCullum, innovator of the much-discussed ‘Bazball’, will be taking charge of the white-ball setup of the national team in January 2025.
In the recent ODI series against Australia at home, the English decided to put their faith in young names. With Harry Brook captaining the side, the likes of Jordan Cox and Dan Mousley played all the games. England ended up losing that series 3-2.
Eoin Morgan On Stokes and Root Joining ODI Side
Speaking on the future of white-ball, and especially ODI cricket in England, the 2019 World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan opined that maybe it is time to bring Stokes and Root back into the ODI team. In a recent interview, he told this to ESPNCricinfo,
“Ben Stokes has already said that he hasn’t had the call yet from Baz as to whether he will play or not. If that call comes, obviously, he would love to play. In my eyes, they’ve got to come into a major world tournament and look to win it, and that means trying to find the best team—and for me, Stokes and Root are in that best team.”
The “major world tournament he is talking about in that statement is the upcoming 2025 Champions Trophy, to be played in Pakistan in February-March of next year, just months into McCullum’s stint as white-ball coach.
However, Morgan also believes that the young side that recently faced the Aussies found a rhythm, which can be tapped into as the team looks forward to the Champions Trophy.
“At the moment, I’m happy to back the younger players. In the recent series against Australia, they found a template. The run chase at Durham, when Harry Brook scored that magnificent hundred and then just went on to find his feet as captain… the template that they found in that game, I thought, is one that really suits the players that they’ve selected. I would encourage them to continue with that template and look ahead to the Champions Trophy,” he said.
England is currently playing a three-match Test series in Pakistan, of which the first Test is currently underway. This will be followed by a white-ball tour to the West Indies and then a three-Test series against New Zealand to close out 2024.
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