England’s World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan
Eoin Morgan signalled the end of an era for England’s limited-overs team as he announced his international retirement on Tuesday.
Morgan, who started his career playing for Ireland, had captained the white-ball side for eight years.
In that time, England went to the 2016 World Twenty20 final and then overcame the pain of that narrow defeat by winning a dramatic 2019 Cricket World Cup final.
Morgan will “go down as one of the most influential figures not just in English cricket but in world cricket”, according to Brendon McCullum, while Nasser Hussain lauded “our greatest ever white-ball captain” and Michael Atherton hailed his “white-ball dynasty”.
But more than merely an outstanding leader – who is expected to be replaced in his role by Jos Buttler – Morgan has also been a brilliant player for England.
Indeed, there is scarcely a white-ball record Morgan does not have his fingerprints on, with his Test career lasting only 16 matches.
Despite playing 23 ODIs for Ireland between 2006 and 2009 before switching allegiances, no player has appeared in more matches for England in the format (225); the same is true of T20Is (115).
Perhaps it is no surprise then that Morgan leads England in runs in both formats – 6,957 in 50 overs and 2,458 in 20. In fact, only eight players of any nationality have scored more T20I runs.
Morgan has played with some of the sport’s biggest hitters but can hold his own, too: his 220 ODI sixes (202 for England) include 17 in one match against Afghanistan at the 2019 World Cup, a record that stands to this day.
In the shortest format, he has hit 120 sixes – the most of any England star and the fourth-most overall.
A star in the field, too, Morgan has taken 46 catches in T20Is to lead England all internationals and rank joint-eighth across the board.
But Morgan will perhaps still be best remembered as the man organising the field as England scaled new heights – and he owns his fair share of records in that regard, too.
Morgan was captain for just over half of his ODI appearances (126), comfortably the most such outings of any England player, ahead of Alastair Cook (69).
It is unsurprisingly a similar story in the younger T20I format, with Morgan’s 72 games as captain matching India’s MS Dhoni for the record.
Morgan’s sublime career is unlikely to be forgotten in a hurry, but this array of dominant records ensures that will remain the case.
