England bank on Eoin Morgan’s mastery of mystery

The batting malaise which has been afflicting England’s senior batsmen has affected two of their one-day international players in particular. Since April one of them has scored 379 runs with one fifty, an average of 27 and a strike-rate of 67. The second has scored 277 runs with one fifty, an average of 17 and a strike-rate of 71. Yet it was Alastair Cook who was deposed and dropped, and Eoin Morgan who replaced him as England’s one-day captain.
This last-minute switch of captaincy ahead of England’s tri-series in Australia and the World Cup will probably turn out to be right – though not the way it was done. Instead of announcing their squad straight after returning from Sri Lanka, England’s management could have given Cook a few days’ grace over Christmas to mull over the option of resigning as ODI captain with his dignity intact. Someone who has rendered such selfless service to England did not deserve to be suddenly and publicly fired, and left "gutted" as Cook admitted, adding: "It is likely to take me a while to get over the disappointment."