Dean Etheridge
Eoin Morgan, the most successful captain in the history of English white-ball cricket retired from the international game last week. So with England losing their inspirational captain so close to the 2022 T20 World Cup, should the English team now be avoided when it comes to making picks on this year’s showdown in Australia?
🚨 BREAKING: England skipper Eoin Morgan has announced his retirement from international cricket.
Details 👇 https://t.co/aLTQ3H2gZm
— ICC (@ICC) June 28, 2022
In the latest 2022 T20 World Cup betting, England is the third favorite at +400 with the best cricket betting sites. Hosts Australia is the +300 favorite, closely followed by India at +350. So far, Morgan’s departure hasn’t in any way affected the odds, as these were the prices before his announcement last week.
So why hasn’t the loss of the man who could go down as England’s most influential white-ball cricketer ever, made any difference to England’s odds?
Morgan’s Diminishing Returns
Since January 2021, Morgan has played just 5 ODIs for England, scoring 103 runs, with 75 of them coming in one innings. He averaged 25.75 in those 5 matches.
In both T20 internationals and franchise T20 competitions (such as the Indian Premier League), Morgan has played 43 games in that time, scoring 643 runs, with a highest score of 47 not out. His average was just 17.86.
It appears to be the case that the sportsbooks see Morgan’s lack of runs as a hindrance to the team, that his leadership skills no longer surpass. Whoever takes his place in the batting lineup will score more runs, and that will help the side more than the loss of Morgan’s captaincy skills will cost them.
That opinion remains to be proven. And England’s future success will also depend on new captain Jos Buttler’s captaincy skills being up to the job. Or at the very least, somewhere near to those of Morgan’s.
New Coach and Captain Combo for England ahead of World Cup
Introducing our new Men's White-Ball captain, @josbuttler 🦁🦁🦁
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 30, 2022
With Morgan’s retirement, England will now have a brand new coach and captain heading into the 2022 World Cup. Pundits and commentators seem to be taking it for granted that the transition from Eoin Morgan to Jos Buttler as new captain will be seamless.
Even if that is the case, Buttler will still need to build a relationship with the new England coach Matthew Mott. This is another question that needs to be answered, and the pair’s relationship will be pivotal to the future success, or not, of the England team.
Indeed, Morgan would also have had to build a relationship with Mott. So in some respects, maybe Morgan’s departure now will have helped Mott settle in with Buttler as captain. Rather than Mott building a relationship with Morgan, and then having to start a coach/captain partnership with Buttler a few months later, Mott can start his England tenure developing with a partnership with Buttler straight from the off.
In short, Morgan’s early departure may be a help to the Mott/Buttler relationship.
2022 T20 World Cup Winners; Futures Betting
| Cricket; T20 World Cup 2022 Betting |  |  |
| Australia | +300 | +300 |
| India | +350 | +400 |
| England | +400 | +400 |
| New Zealand | +700 | +650 |
| Pakistan | +700 | +800 |
| South Africa | +1000 | +900 |
| West Indies | +1400 | +1200 |
| Sri Lanka | +4000 | +3300 |
| Bangladesh | +5000 | +3300 |
| Afghanistan | +6600 | +5000 |
| Scotland | +25000 | +30000 |
| Ireland | +25000 | +30000 |
| UAE | +30000 | +50000 |
| Namibia | +30000 | +40000 |
Please find out more about BetOnline by paying a visit to our BetOnline Sportsbook Review.
A combination of winning the previous world cup in 2021 and hosting this year’s world cup has seen the best cricket betting sites make Australia their favorites.
The Aussies are usually formidable on home soil, so with this in mind, it does ask the question of why they are not shorter in the futures betting markets?
The answer probably is because, on any given day, the likes of Australia, India, and England can all beat each other in any conditions in the T20 format. You can have a favorite, but no side stands out head and shoulders above the rest.
In Australian conditions, Australia will be strong, there is no doubt about that. But if a player like Jonny Bairstow or Jos Buttler gets going for England, no one can stop them. Similarly, India has players like Rishabh Pant, and Rohit Sharma, and Australia has talent like David Warner and Glenn Maxwell. All players can blow the opposition away if they hang around for 5 to 10 Overs at the crucial stage of a match.
Australia has a distinct advantage over India and England in the seam bowling department. When the trio of Cummins, Starc, and Hazlewood are all on form, they can be unplayable.
But in the T20 format, players who take the pace off the ball can be crucial, and England and India probably shade the Aussies in that department.
This is what makes the 2022 T20 World Cup so intriguing, and why the odds are so close. The games between these teams are going to be decided by a brilliant spell of bowling, or destructive innings with the bat. They are too close to call this far out.
