It's laughable to point fingers at The Hundred for Ashes debacle, says Eoin Morgan

England’s white-ball skipper Eoin Morgan felt that the Hundred tournament has nothing to do with England’s recent loss to Australia in the Ashes and found the statement ‘laughable’. The England test team has been under serious criticism for being hammered 0-4 in the hands of the Australian side and they have already lost six Tests in the 10 Tests they have played in the World Test Championship 2021-23 cycle so far.

A lot of talks have been going around England prioritizing the limited-overs format being one of the key reasons for their poor performance in the longest formats. After a horrific run in the 2015 World Cup, England had played a different brand of cricket in the shorter formats and it paid them huge rewards with their maiden World Cup win in 2019. However, they haven’t won a single Test in Australia since 2013 which is a huge concern going forward.

The Hundred is an unbelievable success: Eoin Morgan

Morgan mentioned that the need to bring up an excuse had initiated the blame on the Hundred and believes that the Test format remains the priority. He noted the difficulty of the Australian pitches in the last two tours and credited the home side for their performances in recent times. He found the point of blaming ‘The Hundred’ completely inappropriate and compared it to be the same as the Australian domestic structure.

“People that use that as an excuse don’t want cricket,” 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.”

“Given the prep, the guys have had where since they’ve arrived in Australia, until the first Test match, it has hammered it down with rain. It’s laughable to point the finger at the Hundred. The Hundred is an unbelievable success. Our formats in county cricket and the Hundred, in the way they’re structured, it’s exactly the same as Australia’s” Morgan told talkSPORT’s Following On podcast

Morgan revealed the reality of the hour as he stated the ideal reason should have been the preparations that do not come at ease. He stressed the fact that the longest format will be their priority always.

“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,” he added.