England's World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan is set to announce his retirement from international cricket, with Jos Buttler poised to take over as white-ball captain.
The 35-year-old batter is England's top run-scorer in both one-day internationals and T20 cricket and led his country to victory in the 2019 World Cup on home turf at Lord's.
But Morgan has been struggling for form and fitness this year and was twice out for a duck in the recent series victory over the Netherlands. He withdrew from the third match with a groin injury. Reports suggest he will officially announcement on his retirement on Tuesday.
England's next white-ball assignment is against India in a three-match T20 series starting on July 7, while the T20 World Cup in Australia begins in October.
Dublin-born Morgan had hoped to stay the course long enough for one last tilt at the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia, a final shot at unifying cricket’s two biggest trophies, but he has now accepted his time is up.
The left-hander played 16 Tests, scoring two centuries, but did not cement a place in the five-day side and went on to be seen as a limited-overs specialist.
As a sparkling and innovative stroke-maker Morgan was ahead of his time and was catapulted into the captaincy when Alastair Cook was sacked on the eve of the 2015 World Cup.
The tournament was a disaster, with England knocked out in the group stages, but Morgan was identified by then director of cricket Andrew Strauss as the man to reboot an ailing team.
Taking the driving seat alongside new head coach Trevor Bayliss, who acted more as a facilitator for Morgan’s ideas, he ushered in a new generation of players and established England as the standard bearers for attacking limited-overs cricket.
The project culminated in dramatic fashion at the home of cricket in 2019, with Ben Stokes’ heroics and a tied super over against New Zealand in the World Cup final, as England triumphed on boundary countback.
The success cemented Morgan’s place among the pantheon of English sport’s greatest leaders but he also leaves a considerable legacy as a player. He retires as the country’s record one-day and T20 run-scorer, posting 6,957 and 2,458 in the respective formats.
