Australia vs England 2013-14: England sweat over Eoin Morgan's fitness ahead of the third ODI

Australia v England: Game 2

Eoin Morgan faces a race against time to make it to the 3rd ODI

England face fresh injury concerns as Eoin Morgan, the centurion at Brisbane is facing a race against time to be fit for the third One-Day international in Sydney. Morgan is currently undergoing intense training to recover from a pulled-calf which saw him miss out of the match after the 40th over, before which he had to leave the field twice for treatment.”We’ll see over the next 24 hours how I pull up and travel to Sydney,” said Morgan.

Broad, who had been rested for the first 2 matches of the ODI series, will surely return to the side, after the lacklustre bowling display by the English side at the death in the 2nd ODI. Boyd Rankin, who is also suffering with a hamstring strain is a doubt for the match, although Broad is likely to replace him in the ranks, after yet another pale display against Australia.

“Stuart comes back for the next one-dayer in Sydney and that’s a positive for us,” said Ashley Giles. “We played some really good cricket. We’ve not necessarily got our best bowling attack out but the guys are learning, getting experience here, and sometimes it’s a steep learning curve.”

England captain, Alistair Cook has admitted tto the fact that the England dressing room was an “emotional place” following the defeat, which looked improbable for most parts of the match, until James Faulkner took the matter in his own hands. Although, Morgan believes that the young English side will learn from the heart-break.

“It is quite tough to take. We were all over today’s game and we did a lot of things right but we let a good side come in to it at the end,” he said. We did not finish as well as we would have liked. We are as surprised as anyone at the result. Performing so convincingly throughout gave us a lot of confidence and from here we have to dust ourselves off and look forward to Sydney.

“The quick turnaround can work both ways. Guys probably shouldn’t be as harsh as they will be on themselves. Naturally they will be, but if you look through today’s game we’ve done a lot of things right.

“We took early wickets second innings and we consistently built pressure. We took two wickets in the powerplay. It’s just that final little bit and when you are playing against a side whose a lot more experienced than we are, and slightly has the momentum in the series, things can all of a sudden not go your way.”

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Edited by Staff Editor