Graham Thorpe

Morgan has been a revelation

Wed Sep 30 02:42PM

Eoin Morgan has been a revelation and England coach Andy Flower will be delighted that he has produced as his talent suggested he might.

England have long needed someone to inject some fire and aggression in the middle-order, and Morgan has proved a real find.

The Middlesex man has been superb, and for him to double up as a stand-in wicket-keeper just shows how talented and adaptable he is.

For a batsman to be so explosive and confident so early in his career is very impressive indeed, and to have someone to put the ball out of the park is fantastic to see.

England have always had trouble finding batsmen to play aggressively in the middle overs of an innings, going back to when myself and Neil Fairbrother had that role.

In the modern game you need players down the order to take the game to the opposition, and that is exactly what Morgan has been doing to great effect.

Owais Shah has played extremely well, particularly in his incredible innings against South Africa, while Joe Denly has continued to impress.

Shah is very hard to evaluate because he has all the talent in the world but he is sometimes prone to the odd lapse in concentration and does something silly.

I think he over-thinks things and that is when his problems come into play. He has shown what he can do against the highest calibre of opposition; he must now kick on.

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As for the palaver with South Africa skipper Graeme Smith not being given a runner, I think Strauss was right not to cave in.

I am of the old school in this sort of thing because if you hand out runners for cramp, then where do you stop?

Smith, of course, is going to try to push the opposing captain in those situations, but it was clutching at straws and Strauss stayed strong.

Cramp is a fitness thing which is part and parcel of the game and players have to prepare and train properly to ensure that it does not affect them.

I do not think that any other captain in the competition would have done any different to Strauss in that situation if they are being honest.

Perhaps Smith should have gone down and pretended he had pulled a hamstring or something: you have to box clever sometimes.

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