MUMBAI:England\u00a0s Eoin Morgan insisted Tuesday he had no regrets over his controversial decision to skip last year\u00a0s tour of Bangladesh, ahead of his return to the one-day captaincy in India this week.
\nMorgan, skipper of England\u00a0s Twenty20 and 50-over sides, came in for criticism for opting out of the Bangladesh series over security concerns, with several commentators saying his decision had damaged his authority.
\nBut speaking to journalists in Mumbai, where England play two warm-up matches this week before their first ODI against India on Tuesday, Morgan said he was comfortable with the decision and it was now time to move on.
\n“I don\u00a0t regret that at all. It was a decision I\u00a0m very comfortable with,” Morgan said.
\n“It was a decision I considered all consequences (to) when I did. Sitting here or sitting at home I would have been very comfortable with it.”
\nJos Buttler stepped up to the captaincy when England played three ODIs in Bangladesh in October, with Morgan opting out of the tour in the wake of a deadly attack on a cafe in Dhaka which was popular with foreigners.
\nFormer England skipper Nasser Hussain said Morgan had “let England down” by staying at home. Another ex-captain Michael Vaughan wrote in the Daily Telegraph that players would not forget how their leader “went missing at a difficult time”.
\nMorgan, who has recently been playing T20 cricket with the Sydney Thunder franchise in Australia\u00a0s Big Bash League, denied it had felt weird to link up with his international teammates again.
\n“No, not at all, I was extremely excited. I think a major part of that was getting some cricket under my belt in the run-in to the series, which I\u00a0ve managed to do,” said Morgan.
\n“I\u00a0m really excited about the upcoming series and the next five, six months, which is going to be a big part in our lead towards the World Cup” being staged in England in 2019.
\nAfter the Bangladesh tour, England were hammered 4-0 by India in a five-match Test series under the captaincy of Alastair Cook.
\nBut England\u00a0s short-form cricket has shown a big improvement since they crashed out of the 2015 ODI World Cup. They were the beaten finalists in last year\u00a0s World T20 tournament in India.
\nSenior batsman Joe Root is expected to be back in the side for the first ODI in Pune after staying back for the birth of his child, although Morgan indicated that he could be rested at some stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MUMBAI:England\u00a0s Eoin Morgan insisted Tuesday he had no regrets over his controversial decision to skip last year\u00a0s tour of Bangladesh, ahead of his return to the one-day captaincy in India this week. Morgan, skipper of England\u00a0s Twenty20 and 50-over sides, came in for criticism for opting out of the Bangladesh series over security concerns, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n