ENGLAND may be forced to “take a punt” on Eoin Morgan to discover if he is cut out for Test cricket, according to Middlesex managing director of cricket Angus Fraser.
Morgan has emerged as one of England’s most dynamic limited-overs batsmen, drawing comparisons with Neil Fairbrother and Michael Bevan for his match-winning century in the second one-day international against Bangladesh in Dhaka.
But such is the left-hander’s current diet of one-day and Twenty20 cricket that concerns have been raised that the 23-year-old may not have sufficient chance to fine-tune his skills in the longer form of the game.
Asked if Morgan should play more first-class cricket, Fraser said: “Yes, but when’s he going to do it?
“That’s not being flippant. The fixture list doesn’t allow him to play a great deal of championship cricket.
“He knows that and he wants to do it, but it’s just a question of the workload and the sort of cricket he’s playing.
“I think you can safely say he’s got the skill and ability to adapt to the longest form of the game. It may come down to whether England will be prepared to take a punt on him. Maybe the Bangladesh (Test) series would have been a good time.”
