Eoin Morgan believes taking a month long break from cricket has been the ideal preparation for facing Australia in white ball cricket, starting with the NatWest International T20 at Cardiff this afternoon.

The England one-day captain excelled in the Royal London One-Day Series against New Zealand earlier in the summer, averaging in excess of 64 and lighting up Trent Bridge with a match-winning 113 in the match that levelled the five match series.

England went on to win the series 3-2, but Morgan’s form upon returning to Middlesex wasn’t nearly so impressive, averaging ten and seven in first-class and one-day cricket respectively.

The result was a four week break from the game, and Morgan has praised his county Director of Cricket Angus Fraser for putting his country first by agreeing to the break.

“To start with Gus was very understanding and brilliant in the way he managed it, because he said the priority was English cricket,” said Morgan.

"That is a tough decision to deal with as a director of a county team.

"I can't imagine there are many county directors that would have taken English cricket as a priority over possibly championship or one-day games.

"But we talked about the benefits of it and, sitting here now, I'm probably twice the man I was a month ago because of the schedule, the hectic nature of it, the amount of cricket we play and the very little time off.

"It started with two-weeks off and then we decided, would playing one game before the one-day series make much of a difference?" the Irish born left-hander added.

"I said no, I haven't played for two weeks and another two weeks off would be ideal, to be honest.

"I feel really fresh now. My attitude, my mind, my body is a lot better than it was a month ago. I'm raring to go."

Morgan’s England have just seven matches in the shortest form of the game in which to prepare for the ICC World Twenty20 in India, which gets underway in March.

The 28-year-old admitted that England performances in recent tournament cricket have been poor having been eliminated at the group stage of the ICC Cricket World Cup earlier this year, and losing to Holland en-route to early elimination in the previous short format competition in 2014.

And Morgan, who is likely to hand Nottinghamshire’s Alex Hales the opening berth in the Welsh capital, believes peaking at the right time is the key to global competition success.

"I think we simply haven't been good enough," he said. "Our skill level hasn't been good enough to string enough wins together.

"We have, I think, the players to do that, but we need them in good form and to form the right plan to suit the players that we have.

"We want to get a formula together before the next World Cup and that is obviously crucial."

 

Trent Bridge will host One-Day Internationals against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in 2016. Sign up here to be the first to hear about fixture and ticketing information for these two matches.