Morgan: Time to focus on a fresh start

England

England T20 captain Eoin Morgan, standing in for the injured Stuart Broad, has urged fans to move on from their wretched northern winter, and instead look at the match against Sri Lanka as a fresh start.

England T20 captain Eoin Morgan, standing in for the injured Stuart Broad, has urged fans to move on from their wretched northern winter, and instead look at the match against Sri Lanka as a fresh start.

England have played 10 T20s this calendar year, winning just two of them. They lost both series against Australia and the West Indies, before winning just one game at the World Twenty20, against Tuesday's opponents.

The stand-in skipper said on Monday: "To repay a little bit of what happened in the winter, I think a win would go a long way tomorrow and start off our season properly.

"There's a huge opportunity tomorrow for individuals right down, batting and bowling, as well as collectively as a unit.

"If somebody puts in a match-winning performance against a side we're going to be playing the first half of our season against, it's going to go a long way."

England's most recent T20 was at the WT20, where they lost to Holland after already crashing out of the tournament. They also lost to New Zealand and South Africa, though the latter two were fairly tight.

Morgan defended his side: "You can look back at our T20 World Cup performance, we put in some outstanding performances but never got the results.

"That's incredibly disappointing as a side, when you do play some very good cricket but don't get the rewards.

"But then again, that's the nature of professional sport, just because you work hard it doesn't mean to say that you're going to do well or be rewarded for it.

"But again, we'll continue to work hard and to fight as a squad and hopefully those rewards will come along the way."

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