Captain Eoin Morgan missed England’s third ODI against the Netherlands with a groin injury
(Picture: Getty Images)Concerns around Eoin Morgan’s fitness deepened today when he sat out the third and final ODI of a series against the Netherlands he has ended without scoring a run.
Morgan was ruled out with a groin issue after playing the first two matches of the series, which were both won easily by England.
Morgan has been a transformational captain for England over the last seven years, guiding the national team to a maiden men’s World Cup title in 2019, but there are concerns over both his fitness and form, with World Cups in T20 this year and ODIs next year.
Morgan has now sat out four of England’s last eight white-ball matches with injury and admitted to Standard Sport in an interview last month that, at the age of 35, his body was now beginning to creak.
“There’s nothing specific [injury wise],” he said. “I’m just old, I think! It takes longer to recover.”
Despite a world-record score of 498 in 50 overs in the series opener, Morgan recorded a duck in both matches. It is almost a year since he made a half-century in any cricket, domestic or international.
Morgan says he will know when the time is right to hang ups his boots, and the England set-up say he will be allowed to go out on his own terms. In Morgan’s absence, his vice-captain, Jos Buttler, stepped up to lead the side again and was carded at No4 on the team sheet.
Buttler opted to bowl first upon winning the toss, with Morgan’s absence one of two changes. Sam Curran returned in a slightly-rejigged side, with all-rounders Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali up a place in the order and seven bowling options available.
England handed a debut to the Gloucestershire left-arm seamer David Payne, who was presented with his cap by Mark Alleyne, with whom he works at county level and is with the national team as a locum assistant to Matthew Mott on this tour.
Payne came in for Reece Topley and shared the new ball with David Willey, but there was no debut for the fifth left-arm seamer in the squad, Lancashire’s Luke Wood.
Willey made the first breakthrough, picking up Vikramjit Singh with a short ball in his third over. Tom Cooper also fell after being caught by Livingstone off the bowling of Brydon Carse, while Max O’Dowd edged Livingstone behind to Buttler after reaching his 50.
The Netherlands, who closed in on 200 for 3 with 11 overs to go in their innings, made two changes to their XI, bringing in Kent’s Fred Klaassen and Gloucestershire’s Paul van Meekeren.
