By Rob Barnett
England Head Coach Peter Moores is “comfortable” with the decision to change captaincy shortly before the World Cup.
Moores is part of the panel of selectors that last month opted to make Eoin Morgan England’s one-day skipper in place of Alastair Cook, who was also left out of the World Cup squad.
At Heathrow Airport today Moores spoke publicly for the first time about the decision as he and the England party not involved in the Big Bash League, like Morgan is, prepared to fly Down Under.
Good luck boys! England head off to catch their flight to Australia for the Tri-Series and #CWC15https://t.co/gsRMn7vBpD
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Morgan’s side will initially play in a Tri-Series with Australia and India before starting their World Cup campaign on Valentine’s Day versus the former.
Moores said: “Plans are there to be changed at times. We got to a position where it felt like it was the right thing to do. It was a braver decision I think to change it (than not).
“It felt like it was the right decision to move and so we moved as a set of selectors, so I’m comfortable with that and I think we’ve got the right people on the plane.
“We go there now and we’ve got to perform. The key now in many ways for me is we’ve seen in Sri Lanka some good individual performances but it’s the team performance that counts now. We’ve got to perform well as a team.
“We’ve got to go there with a strong focus, one to perform well as a team but really we’re going to try to win the World Cup.”
Moores thinks the captaincy transition will be smooth given Morgan has led before in Cook’s absence, including when the latter was banned for a game on the recent tour of Sri Lanka.
Brothers in arms! CJ and @jimmy9 say hello before checking in pic.twitter.com/tIeuSUhEaR
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On the captain-coach axis, Moores added: “It’s always a key relationship but obviously Eoin’s been with us now since I’ve been coaching the one-day side and he’s captained part of the time when Alastair’s not been available, and he’s been involved in all the decisions anyway because Alastair’s close to Eoin.
“He’s got a very good cricket brain. I think it will be exciting to work with Eoin. I think he will bring a lot to the team. A very straightforward captain I think, which will be a good thing for us, and very strong desire I think to go out there and show how well he can play but also how well we can play as a team.”
Although Morgan made just one fifty in seven innings versus Sri Lanka, he can take confidence from his previous series against Australia.
A year ago he top-scored with 282 runs at an average of 56.4 in the five games between the rivals.
“(On) Eoin’s last trip to Australia he had a fantastic time. He averaged 56 I think so he did well,” Moores said.
.@crwoakes19, @joeroot05 and @finnysteve are some of the first here pic.twitter.com/A0juNOexkc
— England Cricket (@ECB_cricket) January 6, 2015
“He knows form can vary. He will be desperately keen to make sure he fires as captain. Our job is to support him in getting himself ready to play.
“That’s the challenge for every player. They’ve got to go out there and international cricket’s about being judged as a player. That’s what happens.
“What we do know is he’s a fantastic one-day player. He’s got a one-day mindset in how he goes about his cricket and I think he’ll certainly be up for the challenge and probably look back at the time when he did captain in Sri Lanka and perform very well.”