India vs England: Eoin Morgan calls for improvement after heavy loss in first ODI

Eoin Morgan was at a serious loss of words to explain Thursday’s humiliating eight-wicket defeat in the opening One-Day International against India, but refused to call it a serious drubbing. (MATCH REPORT)

“I probably wouldn’t go that far (to call it a drubbing). You can get exposed more when you don’t put a score on the board on a small ground where the wicket is good. That exposed another area of our game by not scoring enough runs,” Morgan said. (FULL IND v ENG COVERAGE)

He had no qualms, though, about admitting his team being ill-equipped to handle the quality of Kuldeep Yadav’s bowling. “He is very good and there is no getting around that. He exposes an area of our game that we need to improve on and I think that is a good thing and a healthy thing.

“We have played great cricket for the last six months and not come up against anybody like this so it is a chance to improve on this area however long it might take between now and the World Cup,” said Morgan.

Kuldeep has come and halted England’s great run since they turned things around in white ball cricket after the 2015 World Cup. But Morgan was looking at the situation as a rare challenge and hence not panicking at his batsmen being unable to pick him.

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“Considering there is only one left-arm chinaman bowler in the world, it is not a huge concern. You play against one team and he happens to be very good, he is not any old left arm Chinaman.

“You have to give credit where it is due, he did bowl well and we need to clarify our plans and commit to them and just be better.”

With England battling to stay alive in the series, the home team skipper predicted that the conditions at Lord’s will be more similar to Cardiff than Trent Bridge, and spin may not be as effective.

“Today, like at Old Trafford, he turned it more than any other spinner in the game and similar to Cardiff and the way we adapted between the two games, conditions change and I think Lord’s will be similar to Cardiff in that regard so the shift will be important, but that doesn’t paper over the fact that we need to get better at playing him.”

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England’s impressive run of 10 successive series wins in 50-overs bilateral series, which culminated in a clean sweep against Australia, had given them a huge confidence boost, but Morgan called Thursday’s defeat as more useful.

“Considering the form we’ve had has been pretty good home and away, it builds confidence against different oppositions in different conditions.

“Finding yourself coming up against something that is rare, it is like facing a right-arm leg spinner who is very good, you don’t come against many of them but when you do, you need to adapt and think on your feet, so it is always a good challenge.”