LONDON, May 5: England�s white-ball captain Eoin Morgan says his team will have to make do with limited opportunities that come its way to prepare for this year�s T20 World Cup after the COVID-19 pandemic forced a cricket shutdown in the country.
The coronavirus outbreak has forced the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to suspend professional games in the country till July 1 and has put in doubt Australia�s ODI and T20I tour of England in July.
Morgan feels converting England�s three-ODI series against Ireland into a T20 rubber in September will be their best chance of getting some practice ahead of T20 World Cup.
�For the last month, everybody has struggled to get a sense of what�s possible and what might or might not happen,� he told reporters via Zoom during the launch of the Abu Dhabi T10.
�We may have to make do. If Tests were going on, there would be ways and means we could have meaningful practice games in and around those Ireland games in a similar environment.
�We could have proper opposition and maybe use the England Lions there too to make it as highly competitive as possible.�
The global health crisis has also put under threat the T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to be held from October 18 to November 15 in Australia.
�If the T20 World Cup goes ahead in the slot that it�s been allocated at the moment, we�ll have certainly played a limited amount of cricket before then,� Morgan said.
�Given the circumstances we�ll have to see how much cricket we play and the opportunities that land on guys� laps. They�ll have to make the most of them.�
Morgan also believes that the T10 format can ensure cricket�s inclusion in Olympics, where the sport has not figured since 1900. � PTI
