NEWS
Follow UsEngland were thrashed 4-0 in the Ashes Down Under and their limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan says that pointing fingers at The Hundred for the team's loss is laughable.
Morgan further insisted that Test cricket remains the team's priority. "People that use that as an excuse don't want cricket," Morgan told talkSPORT's Following On podcast.
"Test match cricket has always been the priority: it's the format for our elite players. Obviously, times at the moment have been tough down in Australia during the Ashes [but] they always are: we've lost the last two series 5-0 [sic] and it's no surprise that Australia are very, very good at home.
"People need something to blame so they'll point at probably the furthest point to reality, because nobody wants to say: 'you know what, we haven't had the prep we would have liked, we probably haven't played as we'd have liked, and we've lost'. That happens in all formats, but I stress: Test match cricket has always been the priority."
Morgan arrived in the Caribbean where his England side will play five T20Is starting Saturday (January 22). Morgan admits not having a full-strength side for many years, but sees this as an exciting opportunity for a few new players coming into the squad.
Barring Sam Billings, England have not picked ay player fro the Ashes touring party which gives an opportunity for players like Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes to recover ahead of the Test series against West Indies, scheduled to start from March 16.
"As a white-ball group, we've gone on tours and played in series at home where we haven't had our full-strength side available - that's been a constant theme for a number of years now," Morgan said. "Obviously Test matches take priority and always do. Going through the exercise of giving younger guys opportunities is a really exciting time for us.
"[Players] coming through county cricket, into the Hundred, playing in franchise tournaments around the world, are now going into our team ready to play international cricket. I'm excited about seeing some of the new players coming into the squad potentially get opportunities over the course of the five games, and hopefully winning a series.
"For the majority of my career, white-ball cricket was an afterthought - 95% of the time was spent around planning and prep for Test match cricket and then when we got to a World Cup, it was like, 'well, if we do well, great, but if we don't, it's fine'.
"With the skill level that guys are producing now on a consistent basis, proven over a long period of time, we're considered one of the best in the world. Trust me, I'd much rather be considered that than an afterthought."
Morgan, England's World Cup-winning captain, was not in the best of forms with the bat in T20 cricket last year, notching up just 416 runs at 16 from 32 innings and had failed to score beyond 47.
"I've had three weeks off now," he said.
"After this trip, there'll be a couple of months which I'll be taking off as well to recharge even more to get the run-in to what's going to be an unbelievably busy six months ahead, with the World Cup right at the back-end. We have a hectic summer and at the back-end of that we go to Pakistan for T20s as well, and then on to Australia, so there's a lot of cricket.
"[I have] a drive to want to leave the team in a far better place with the ambition of them continuing to get better down the line. I've really enjoyed playing with this group. I've loved captaining and, at this particular time in my career, I couldn't be having a better time.
"Turning up to a World Cup as either favourites or joint-favourites or real strong contenders is something that excites me. It's something that I always think about because it makes me think about what we can change to get better, or how we can become more consistent as a side. Until that stops, I think things are good."
