Eoin Morgan was ahead of his time in realizing IPL's value for English cricket: Nasser Hussain

Nasser Hussain heaped praises on Eoin Morgan, the World Cup-winning captain of England, who is expected to announce his retirement from international cricket soon. Nasser stated that the southpaw was ahead of his time as he realized the value of the IPL for English cricketers well in advance.

Even though Morgan has struggled to score runs lately, he is still arguably the best skipper England has ever had in limited-overs cricket. This is true not only because he guided his country to their first-ever ODI World Cup victory, but also because of the way he altered the approach and attitude of the players towards white-ball cricket.

Notably, Morgan was among the first few England players to team up with Kevin Pietersen in the IPL. The ECB was reluctant to send their players to the IPL before the year 2017 as that is when the likes of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes participated. Since then, a number of English cricketers have been in the squads of IPL franchises.

“He was also ahead of his time, along with Kevin Pietersen, in realizing the value to English cricket of the IPL. First, he helped make better players of the likes of Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, and Liam Livingstone. Then he encouraged them to play in the IPL, where they learned to be even better,” Hussain wrote in his column for Daily Mail.

As an on-field captain, he was cool, calm, and calculated: Hussain

Hussain elaborated on Morgan’s tactical leadership by bringing up a specific instance from the 2019 World Cup final, adding: “As an on-field captain, he was cool, calm, and calculated. He was icy-cold. Like all the best leaders, he had a presence. And the one time he didn’t get things right, he learned from it. So when it came to Jofra Archer’s super over against New Zealand at Lord’s in the 50-over final in 2019, Morgan made sure he spoke to his bowler after he began with a tight wide.”

Leading the Three Lions to 76 victories in 126 games, Morgan is England’s most successful ODI captain. The southpaw also has the second-highest victory percentage of 65.25, by any England skipper who has captained in at least 30 ODIs as he is just behind Mike Gatting’s 70%.