England captain Eoin Morgan makes SHOCK admission about the state of Test cricket
EOIN MORGAN has backed the decision by Adil Rashid and Alex Hales to effectively give up on their Test careers and concentrate on cricket's shorter formats.
Eoin Morgan has backed Adil Rashid and Alex Hales to suspend their Test careers
England’s limited-overs skipper also warned that Test cricket faces a bleak future amid the rise of cash-rich T20 competitions around the world.
Rashid and Hales are part of England’s squad for the current one-day series in New Zealand, which starts in Hamilton on Sunday morning, but both recently signed contracts to play only white-ball cricket for their counties after being dropped from the Test team in the past 18 months.
That has led many to fear others will follow suit and snub red-ball cricket, plunging the County Championship into crisis and weakening the talent pool for England’s Test team.
But Morgan, whose side faces a 50-over World Cup on home soil next year, believes both players have made the right call.
“I think it’s a really good decision for those individuals,” he said.
Alex Hales has signed a two-year limited-overs deal with Nottinghamshire
Giving priority to Test matches is sort of a luxury now for the bigger countries
“It is understandable and I think the fact that they haven’t participated in Test-match cricket for some time now, it doesn’t force them to make that decision but it leads them down another path.
"The way that they’ve been playing and putting performances in in the white-ball format, I can understand why they have done it.
“Every individual is different, they see their future and their pathway changing all the time, and it’s okay to be able to change it.”
Adil Rashid will play white-ball cricket for Yorkshire in the 2018 season
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Morgan also did not hold back when asked about Test cricket’s health, saying: “Test match cricket has had a lot to worry about for quite a while now.
"If something was going to be done about it, it probably should have been done already.
“Giving priority to Test matches is sort of a luxury now for the bigger countries around the world. For other countries T20 franchise cricket takes priority.”