England’s skipper Eoin Morgan accepted the fact that his batsmen were “completely deceived” by the Indian leggie Kuldeep Yadav in the opening Twenty20 International against India. Kuldeep finished with exceptional figures of 5 for 24 at Old Trafford on Tuesday, a performance that put the foundation of Indian 8-wicket victory over the hosts and they took the 1-0 lead as well.
During the post-match press-conference, Morgan acknowledged, “We weren’t good enough in Bengaluru (when Yuzvendra Chahal took 6-25 in February 2017). But that was a different game. It was different today. Kuldeep took three wickets in four balls and deceived us. It wasn’t a case of us chipping the ball up in the air. He completely deceived us and I thought he bowled well.”
ALSO READ: Kuldeep Yadav Is Not Afraid Getting Smashed For Sixes
He further added, “We didn’t get enough runs and were probably 30-40 runs short. I thought we got off to a brilliant start. Kuldeep bowled well but we know we can play him better than that. So between now and the next game, we need to assess our plans, make sure they are the right ones, and stick with them.”
Yadav dismissed three English batsmen in his third over when he had Morgan (7) caught in the deep and Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root stumped by MS Dhoni for golden ducks.
Morgan called on the England middle-order should learn to play the spinners from Jos Butter. He said, “That’s the hardest part about batting – starting against a spinner so we have to face more deliveries off him. Jos was playing him (Kuldeep) better but he had probably already faced 35 balls before he came on to bowl. Jos is a magnificent player of spin. They didn’t necessarily get away, but acknowledged he was bowling well. Then I looked to take on the short side, and it didn’t work. Then he got two of our guys out.”
ALSO READ: Kuldeep Yadav’s fifer destroys strong English batting line-up
Asked what kind of different approach England batsmen can take to play Indian wrist spinners going ahead in the series, Morgan replied, “It’s like any other challenge. If you are facing someone who bowls 95mph, it is very difficult to replicate. If you’re facing a guy who turns it both ways and disguises it well, it’s very difficult to replicate – because there is nobody else who bowls like that. So you have to have a pretty clear plan, and stick to it.”
England was just coming off a 6-0 blanking of Australia across ODIs and T20Is. But the hosts found India too hot to handle.
‘Morgan concluded by praising the Indian centurion batsman KL Rahul, he said, “They played our spinners in smaller margins. It could have gone the other way if we had taken our half chances, like Chris Jordan on the boundary, or if Rahul got caught at a point early in the innings. Then it would have been a completely different game. He (Rahul) played extremely well and I don’t think anybody found batting as easy as he did today.”
