The suspense over England's tour to Bangladesh seems to have finally found its conclusion. The players have more or less decided to go on ahead with the tour after the England and Wales Cricket Board waved the green flag.
However, ODI captain Eoin Morgan and opening batsman Alex Hales have withdrawn their name from the squad owing to personal reasons and citing security concerns. This has evoked contrasting responses from people all over the world. While few are questioning their claims, others are voiced their support.
Morgan and Hales both have been critical members of the team and their exclusion will certainly be felt by the team during the tour.
We take a look at 5 possible repercussions which could be felt by both Eoin Morgan and Alex Hales as far as their career is concerned.
#5 End of Test career for Alex Hales
While Alex Hales has been brilliant in the limited overs format, his form has been iffy in Test matches. As such his decision to skip the Bangladesh tour can effectively end his Test career as the selectors will now be forced to bring in a replacement to partner Alastair Cook at the top of the order.
Ben Duckett, Sam Robson and the rest can be possible replacements and then this will leave Hales out in the cold. Thus, has this 'personal' decision possibly ended his 'professional' career too in Test matches.
While this may yet be a statement banking too much on possibilities, what could transpire in the future may well be along the same lines.
#4 England's imperious run in Limited overs could be stalled
England have become a dominant force in One Day Internationals, and this is a result of an aggressive and calculated measure adopted by the team management. Both Morgan and Hales are very much part of the nucleus and they are integral elements in any planning process. Thus, their decision to give this tour a miss will most definitely hit all the permutations and combinations which might have an effect on the performance of the team during this tour.
While the management will still hold their chin up and maintain that the team has enough depth, the fact remains that these are two big players we are talking about and players who have been in form in the recent past.
#3 Jos Buttler as a new leader
In many ways, Jos Buttler has been the face of the dramatic transformation of England in this format, and hence when he strides out as the captain of the team during the One Dayers it will be very interesting to see how the team responds to the new leader.
The few matches in which Buttler has captained the side, he has been fairly impressive with his game sense. Also, the fact that he is one of the best ODI batsmen in the team augurs well for him as he can then expect similar things from other players.
This series is not a normal series, it will always be played under the security threat cloud, and thus in this scenario the team will look at its leader to guide them, and Buttler will be that leader.
#2 Eoin Morgan's credibility will take a hit
For all his achievements with the England shirt, Morgan will always be an Irish who embraced England because of the greater opportunities. England too rewarded him for his perseverance by giving him the mantle of the team, but what now when the captain has decided to shun the team during one of the most trickiest situation yet?
While many could argue that Morgan has been a man who does not go with the flow and makes decisions according to his own whims and fancies, this particular call could well prove to be detrimental to his entire career thus far.
He has been patchy in One Day cricket, his average is almost 30 this year, and in such a scenario if someone like a Sam Billings does well on this tour, things might get tricky for him, as Buttler would have given the management another captaincy option.
#1 Fault lines have been open
Andrew Strauss, the director of England had categorically mentioned that while the decision to go on the tour rests firmly with the players, he hoped that the players decide to trust the board and go on the tour.
Thus, when Morgan and Hales decide to stay back it will surely rip open the fault lines and the trust between the Board and players could be eroded.
Morally speaking, the players in the squad can never trust Morgan when the going gets tough in the future, and this could be a huge problem in the future!
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