IPL 2023: Strike rates not a problem for Eoin Morgan | Cricket News – Times of India

MUMBAI: While it’s quite early into the IPL season, there is already a debate raging about the strike rate at which some of the sheet anchors have gone about their business. Facing the heat are some of the best in the business — from Virat Kohli to KL Rahul to Shikhar Dhawan to David Warner.
Kohli and his Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Faf du Plessis were questioned for slowing down against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) after the powerplay overs. Kohli was off the blocks quickly before taking 10 balls to score the eight runs he required to reach his half-century, which came off 35 balls. At one point Du Plessis was 33 of 31 balls before he upped the ante.
Chasing 212 for victory, LSG were soon reduced 23 for three and with Marcus Stoinis (65, 30b) going all guns blazing, skipper Rahul decided to take a backseat. But once the Australian was back in the pavilion, he tried to open-up but soon departed. It was always going to be a tall chase and it needed a hurricane innings from Nicholas Pooran (62, 19b) to see LSG through.
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Former England skipper Eoin Morgan is of the opinion that it is the game situation that batters find themselves, which dictates how they go about building their
innings.
“Majority of the chat around strike rate has been when wickets have been lost and ultimately when sides have been beaten. One of the hardest things to do is to take risks when you are losing wickets. It is very easy to sit back and forget the understanding of where the batter is trying to get,” said Morgan, who is working as
an IPL Expert for JioCinema.
Morgan’s explanation makes sense when you consider in what position the players find themselves in. Kohli and Du Plessis have to face most deliveries for RCB as one can’t predict what to expect from the batters that follow.

Glenn Maxwell had one of his rare good days with the bat when he scored a quickfire half-century, but you can’t expect him to be consistent. Same is the case with Rahul as there are not many in the LSG line-up that could hold the innings together.
Mumbai Indians’ skipper Rohit Sharma, after their last-ball win over Delhi Capitals on Tuesday, said that he wanted to make full use of the powerplay overs and thus adopted an aggressive approach.
Rohit scored 37 runs off just 17 balls in the powerplay and with a target of 173 within their reach, he decided to play anchor and take the game deep. While he couldn’t bat till the end, his presence at the crease provided some calm.

Morgan has backed the approach chosen by the experienced players.
“Dhawan is a great example as he batted through the innings and got 99. But (in between) that innings some of them were saying he needs to get on with it. With wickets falling at the other end, every experienced player knows that you need to get partnerships going. Last night (MI vs DC match) we also saw David Warner trying to get a partnership going as he tried to build some sort of a total and then Axar Patel came in and played beautifully,” said Morgan, who, as England captain, was responsible for revolutionising the team’s approach in white-ball cricket.
When quizzed about whether Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer should risk playing in the IPL considering the niggles they have suffered, Morgan said: “These players know their bodies, they are preparing for the full year not just for an IPL season. If they are not playing in the IPL, they would be playing in County cricket which
has the same risk. It is actually a bigger risk because (they would be) bowling more overs and playing four-day cricket.”

(AI image)