But a refreshed Morgan said he will wear a protective helmet with a neck guard in the four-match series against Pakistan which starts in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday – his first match since the incident. Being in that position having never been in it before anxious me a lot.
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Morgan switched mid-series against Australia to the Masuri helmet, with its additional neck-guard developed after Phillip Hughes suffered a fatal blow from a bouncer past year, and he has since updated to a bespoke model individually moulded for him.
“At the time, it was quite concerning, ” he said.
“I am confident he can recapture his form”.
Jos Buttler is set to keep wicket for England against Pakistan in the first one-day global, after recovering sufficiently from a finger injury. “But I think the culture and the platform the summer gave us will hold us in good stead”.
England’s total of 216 proved a feeble one as Pakistan, despite slipping to 41 for three, reached their target of 217 in convincing fashion but Morgan said England were in with a chance had they added more runs in the middle order.
“We will emphasise that going into the next game [tomorrow], particularly to the batters because it’s one thing as a team and a batting unit that we haven’t struggled with these last two series so it is a challenge within itself but we’re up for the challenge”.
“I had feelings of off-balance, grogginess, a little bit of blurred vision”. It’s worrying, to be honest, because the feeling of concussion is something I’ve never had before.
The 29-year-old said: “It was probably about 10 days before I was completely right”. “I still look back at it now and, hats off, it was a pretty good delivery”.
His ability to score quickly – his strike rate of 113.89 is easily the highest in England’s history – and score big – his top ODI score of 129 against New Zealand was only five months ago – belies his current form and points to his match-winning potential in all formats. “He is available for selection”, Morgan said. They were two competitive series, and we managed to turn over New Zealand. It was a very productive summer for us, in which we’ve seen a lot of our youngsters (come up with) a few unbelievable performances. “This, again, will be different”.
“They’re always very challenging, a very capable side”. They offer a huge amount of skill.
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“We have two left-armers in our squad and Liam Plunkett and Chris Jordan, who have different aspects to their game that might come into use out here, where the ball doesn’t move that much off the straight and you have to come up with different ideas”.
