Eoin Morgan, an Irish-born English cricketer is probably the best white-ball captain in England’s cricketing history. An attacking batsman who can play both seam and spin with the same effect should be able to have a good career in a tournament like the Indian Premier League.
In this piece, we look at Morgan’s career in IPL and how it has been different from his T20I career. Tactically he is one of the best captains in the modern era but his lack of runs for the franchise may have an impact on the team balance. Morgan has played for four franchises to date. They are RCB, SRH, KXIP ( now Punjab Kings), and his current team Kolkata Knight Riders.
Morgan was one of the key players for England alongside K Pietersen and C Kieswetter in the successful T20 WC 2010. In more than 100 T2OI’s, the player has a strike rate of 138 and an average of 28. A player with such stats and given his leadership qualities have not been able to impact a franchise’s season/s when compared to the likes of David Warner, Andre Russel, or Faf du Plessis.
Struggle vs Spin
Morgan has been a good player of quality spin bowling, his innings against Afghanistan in the ICC WC 2019 where he smoked Rashid Khan for seven sixes was an example of his brilliance. But Morgan has found it difficult to bat against the spinners in the IPL. Striking only at 116 Morgan has a dot ball percentage of nearly 40 when compared to 33.6 in T20I. Playing in the middle order in the sub-continent you need to strike at a better pace and keep up the momentum in that phase of the innings. Since 2018 the strike rate has fallen to 111.04. Ironically the strike rate in T20I since 2018 is 141.
2020 VS 2021 IPL
The 2020 IPL season where Morgan was made the captain mid-way through the tournament was his best season as a batsman. Morgan managed to score more than 400 runs in a single edition for the first time. He was striking at a decent rate of 138 per 100 balls and averaged 40+. An average of 40 with a single 50 suggests that he contributed with some runs every time he went out to bat.
With such a season and the opportunity to lead a team from the start of a tournament, the KKR management would have hoped for a much better performance from their captain. In 10 matches till now he has managed to score only 107 runs and has crossed the two-figure mark only twice.
KKR possesses a strong middle order with international stars in Morgan, Dinesh Karthik, and Andre Russel. And now with Tripathi firing at No.3, if not for the leadership position, with such stats Morgan would have found it difficult to find a place in the playing X1.
Performance by Batting Position
Every position on the batting lineup demands different skills and more so different roles depending upon the team balance. For example, a team with batting depth till No.9 like CSK would give a free license to the openers whereas RCB who struggle with their late middle order, you see Virat Kohli more often than not anchoring the innings when he is more than capable of playing his shots. Morgan has batted at No.4 or No.5 for most of his IPL career and has struggled at No.4.
Just 10 innings at No.6 he has good stats and probably has a defined role of finishing the innings from that position. Morgan’s struggle against spin can be countered by him by batting at this position and facing the majority of the overs by the pacers in the death and using his fancy reverse sweeps to the most. He could probably come in at no.6 between Russel and Karthik and play with complete freedom.
Conclusion
After this season, IPL will have a mega auction and with teams like CSK where there might be a change in a leadership position as Dhoni might retire and RCB where Kohli is stepping down from the captain’s position, franchisees will be looking for a leader with good experience. There is no one better than Eoin Morgan for this role. But it will be interesting to see how his batting contribution is judged by the teams. KKR has some games in hand and would want Morgan to fire to keep their chances of qualification alive and also the player would want to find some form before the T20 WC 2021. Not only KKR fans but also England fans are waiting to see Morgan play at its best.