World Cup 2023: Winning WC in India would be bigger achievement for England than 2019 triumph, says Eoin Morgan

England’s 2019 World Cup winning captain Eoin Morgan believes going all the way in the upcoming ODI showpiece in India would be a bigger achievement for the English team than the 2019 victory. England had won the 2019 World Cup in a thrilling fashion after they had beaten New Zealand in the summit clash in a nail-biter.

England will once again enter the World Cup as red-hot favourites and there will be huge expectations from the Jos Buttler-led team. The Three Lions are well known to play aggressively and recently defeated New Zealand by 3-1 in four-match ODI series.

Morgan revealed their sole focus was to win the 2019 World Cup after they were knocked out in the early stages of the 2015 mega event.

“The challenges for me going into 2019 were completely different to what Jos has gone through coming into this tournament. Between 2015 and 2019, our sole focus was trying to win the ODI World Cup at home. There was a clear emphasis on having your best players available in the year leading up and trying to get absolute role clarity in every position possible. Jos has not had that,” Morgan wrote in his column for Sky Sports.

The World Cup winning skipper added that Test cricket has been England’s priority in 2023 and thus it must have been a challenge for Jos Buttler and Matthew Mott to prepare for the quadrennial event.

“There has been a complete change in mindset in English cricket where Test cricket is now the out-and-out priority. Only on very few occasions in T20s and ODIs has Jos had his best side available. This has been an Ashes year, a huge year for Ben Stokes and his red-ball team. Quietly behind the scenes Buttler and head coach Matthew Mott have been planning for this World Cup but, if you asked them, they would probably say it has been unbelievably challenging.

Morgan added England would have wanted their key players to be fully fit and had much-needed game time under their belt before they play their World Cup opener.

“They would have wanted everyone in peak fitness before leaving for India but Mark Wood has not bowled in a competitive game since the last Ashes Test in July. The side has chopped and changed quite a lot while there were question marks over the squad with the late omission of Jason Roy and the inclusion of Harry Brook.

England will begin their title defense against New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on October 5.