One of the best sayings in the game of cricket is that the best player in a team is not the captain, but the captain is the one who knows how to get the best out of his teammates, a line that fits perfectly with England captain Eoin Morgan. Morgan has announced his retirement from international cricket due to poor current form. He has scored just one half-century in 48 innings in domestic and international cricket since 2021. Apart from this he could not score a single run in the last two innings against the Netherlands, and after that he made up his mind to say goodbye to cricket forever. Born on September 10, 1986 in Dublin, Ireland, Morgan has loved playing cricket since childhood. Morgan, who joined Middlesex County Cricket Club at the age of 20, first started playing cricket for Ireland and then joined England cricket.
Debuted ODI for Ireland in 2006
In 2006, at the age of 20, Morgan made his ODI debut for Ireland against Scotland. Morgan played an innings of 99 in this match. He scored his first century on 4 February 2007 against Canada in Nairobi. And he came to play for Ireland in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
Debuted T-20 from England in 2009
In 2009, he made his T20I debut for England as a middle order batsman. He was only 23 at the time. A year later he got a chance to play Test for England and he made his Test debut for England against Bangladesh.
Beginning of captaincy for Morgan
Morgan was named captain of England’s ODI team ahead of the 2015 World Cup. The England team was going through its worst phase at the time. The ECB was confident Morgan could breathe life into the team. But the 2015 World Cup season was nothing short of a nightmare for the team. In that World Cup, the England team was ranked 5th in its group. England had only two wins against teams like Scotland and Afghanistan, except that they could not win any match.
The rise of the England team in white ball cricket
The failures of the 2015 World Cup shook Morgan from within and he decided to build a team that would move forward with a fearless attitude. Many senior players were shown the door and youngsters were preferred. He allowed his young players to play freely. His efforts soon paid off and the team began to look different. The impact was felt in 2018 when the team overtook India at number one in the world rankings for the first time in five years.
Journey from the ground to the sky in 4 years
The team that failed to reach the quarterfinals in the 2015 World Cup emerged as the biggest contender in the 2019 World Cup. This is proof of Morgan’s captaincy. One cannot forget his explosive innings of 148 off 48 balls against Afghanistan in the World Cup in which he hit 16 sixes. Not only that, but the rest of the team’s batsmen had a similar approach, which led to the team winning history for the first time in Morgan’s captaincy, beating New Zealand to end a 44-year drought.
Morgan’s cricket career
Eoin Morgan has scored 7,701, 700 and 2,458 runs in 248 ODIs, 16 Tests and 115 T-20 internationals, respectively. 14 centuries to his name in ODIs; 47 half-centuries, 2 centuries in Tests; T20 has 3 half centuries and 14 half centuries.
There is no one like Morgan
As captain, he has won 76 of 126 matches for England and 42 of 72 matches as captain in the T20I. His winning percentage in ODIs is 62.25 while in T20s it is 60.56 per cent which is a record as a captain. Apart from this, he is the only cricketer to have scored a century for two different countries. In addition to being named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2011, he led England to the 2019 World Cup and runners-up to the T20 World Cup in 2016 and to the semifinals in 2022.