England’s 50-over captain Eoin Morgan is confident that his side can effectively bounce back from their loss against Australia in the Carlton-Mid Tri Series by the time the two sides meet again in the ICC Cricket World Cup.
Mitchell Johnson and Glenn Maxwell proved the difference as the hosts secured a 112-run victory over England, who themselves have shown much improvement through the series, skittling India to reach Sunday’s final.
“There has been a huge amount of progression in the last three or four weeks that we’ve been in Australia,” said Morgan.
“Looking at where we were in Sri Lanka and where we are at now I think we’re a little bit of a different side with the outlook and the manner that we are playing in.
“The biggest test for us will be coming back from defeat like this.
“Any side, when they do get knocked down, the stronger ones get back up – and I’ve no doubt that we’ll bounce back from this.”
After taking four early wickets to put England on the front foot, Australia were boosted by an excellent partnership between Shaun Marsh and Glenn Maxwell, who added 141 for the fifth wicket. Their progress negated good work from Stuart Broad and James Anderson, their return to sharpness welcome.
“Winning the toss and bowling first and having Australia four or five down early was brilliant. The first 35 overs of our bowling innings, I am really proud of,” said Morgan.
“I think if we’re being really harsh on ourselves, Australia probably got about 20 too many, but certainly given the batting conditions 270 was certainly within our reach.
“I think throughout the innings we kept shooting ourselves in the foot, making poor decisions, which again led us to the position we’re in at the moment.
“It is very disappointing that we continue to make mistakes when we weren’t put under that much pressure.”
The England players will now enjoy a couple of days off before warm-up matches against Pakistan and West Indies and Morgan hopes his team-mates use the time to recharge their batteries and begin the task of getting ready for that World Cup opener against Australia.
Having been made to watch their opponents lift the Tri-Series trophy will hopefully spur England on to continue their upward trajectory into the World Cup. With more than ten days between matches, Morgan is looking for his charges to prioritise recovery and relaxation before working to impress on an even bigger stage.
“Probably more important is getting that down time in between,” he said.
“It is important that we’re physically and mentally fresh for the warm-up games. Guys have been putting in performance after performance.
“What we are going to be looking for over that World Cup period is consistency. If we can strive to achieve that we can do good things.”
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