Morgan shelves Test ambitions for ‘special’ white-ball side

Eoin Morgan has accepted that his commitment to limited-overs cricket may have ended his hopes of winning back a place in England’s Test team.

While Morgan, England’s captain in limited-overs cricket, insists he would love to add to his 16 Test caps, he admitted he “couldn’t see it happening” without a major change of commitment in the coming months.

Morgan, 29, returned from a 12-week trip to India on Tuesday. As well as reaching the final of the World T20 with England, he was a member of the Sunrisers Hyderabad squad – albeit a non-playing member in the final – that won the IPL. He will feature in Middlesex’s NatWest Blast side on Thursday. But he has not played a first-class match since July and reasons that he is unlikely to play more than three or four this season. As a result, he has little realistic chance to win a Test recall.

Such is his confidence in the England’s limited-overs squad, however, that it is a sacrifice he is happy to have made. He believes his young team could “do something special” over the next few years and he is happy to have prioritised that ambition.

“Do I still want to play Test cricket?” he said “Absolutely. How I’m going to get there? I’m not sure yet. I would have to cut back my white-ball commitments. And at the moment I don’t see it happening because of what’s happened for me in white-ball cricket in the last year.

“There is a huge opportunity to take this England side forward. Even if I’m not captain in the future, with the crop of players we have at the moment I still believe we could do something special. And that for me in my career at the moment is my priority.

“I don’t play a red-ball game until August, so at the moment it’s not at the forefront of my thinking. I …

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