England Using IPL As Platform To Grow Their Players: Eoin Morgan

England’s 2019 World Cup winning captain Eoin Morgan is fit and raring to go for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2020, which is rescheduled to be played in the UAE. It will be an exciting return for Eoin Morgan as the is familiar and played with the KKR franchise earlier in the IPL.

Apart from Morgan, a plethora have English talents have plied their trade in the lucrative tournament. Ben Stokes, Sam Billings, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff are among some of the past and present players to have played in the IPL. However, Eoin Morgan revealed the reason behind English players taking part in the tournament.

Morgan said that playing IPL was a part of Andrew Strauss’ plan and he pushed him to take the decision. Morgan also said that it is difficult to replicate the pressure that is there is Champions Trophy or World Cup and IPL takes players outside comfort zone. England is thus using it as a vehicle for the growth of their players.

“Playing in IPL was part of Strauss’s plan. I pushed him to make that call because in international bilateral series, it’s so difficult to replicate the pressure that’s there in Champions Trophy or the World Cup,” Morgan told Harsha Bhogle on ‘Cricbuzz in Conversation’.

“He asked me what’s different? One, you play as an overseas player so there are huge expectations. If you play in IPL, there’s different pressure and different expectation. Sometimes you can’t get away with it and you have to find a way to deal with it.”

“It takes you out of your comfort zone. It is completely beneficial to play in IPL. That was a big mindset shift for us. And I hope Indian cricket is alright with us because we are using it as a vehicle to try and grow players,” said the 33-year-old while hoping that BCCI doesn’t mind seeing England cricketers benefitting from the IPL to such an extent.