Eoin Morgan's injury during the recent ODI series against India was a cause for concern not only for the England team but also his IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
The England captain required four stitches in his right hand after tearing the webbing between his thumb and index finger while fielding in the first ODI against India in Pune. That ruled him out for the remainder of the series and put a question mark on his preparations for the IPL that starts on April 9.
But on Wednesday, Morgan revealed his recovery is on schedule and he expects to resume fielding by the end of the week.
"I feel a lot better than I did a week ago," Morgan said during a virtual conference to announce a partnership between KKR and esports platform Mobile Premier League.
"The plan is to remove the stitches tomorrow and progress my batting in the coming days and over the week. And fielding at the back end of that. Given the timeframe that I have, it is looking very good."
That was not the only good bit of news for Morgan. The performances of KKR young guns – batsman Shubman Gill and pacer Prasidh Krishna – during the series against Australia and England respectively filled the captain with confidence.
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IPL all-time records
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Most runs in IPL: Virat Kohli - 5,878 runs in 184 innings. AFP -
Highest score: Chris Gayle - 175* for Royal Challengers Bangalore v Pune Warriors in 2013. AFP -
Most sixes: Chris Gayle 349 maximums in 131 innings. AFP -
Most fours: Shikhar Dhawan - 591 fours in 175 innings. Sportzpics for BCCI -
Best strike rate: Andre Russell - 182.33 in 61 innings. AP -
Most wickets in IPL: Lasith Malinga - 170 scalps in 122 innings. AP -
Best bowling: Alzarri Joseph - 6/12 Mumbai Indians v Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2019. AFP -
Best economy rate: Rashid Khan - 6.24 runs per over in 62 innings. AFP -
Best average: Kagiso Rabada - 18.09 runs per wicket in 35 innings. Sportzpics for BCCI -
Most dot balls: Harbhajan Singh - 1,249 in 157 innings. AP
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Gill looked at ease opening the innings against the Aussie quicks during the Test series Down Under while Krishna impressed with his pace in the white-ball series against the Englishmen.
"It was great to see Prasidh represent his family and India. Shubman is in a different phase than Prasidh. He has gone and experienced an overseas tour, and one of the more difficult tours of Australia. And came back with a huge amount of confidence from a successful campaign. It is an extremely healthy pool of Indian players to be a part of," Morgan added.
A talented pool of players is something Kolkata is not short of, especially in the spin department. They already have slow bowlers like Varun Chakravarthy, Shakib Al Hasan and Kuldeep Yadav. And they have added veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh to the mix.
"Adding Harbhajan to our squad has strengthened us in a really good way. If you look at our spin department, on paper it is one the best in the tournament. You look at the options we have and the conditions we will play, particularly in Chennai which notoriously can turn ... and raise the eyebrows of our spinners," Morgan said.
The England captain will be leading the franchise from the start this time, having been named leader midway through the season last year in the UAE after taking over from Dinesh Karthik. Flexibility in their plans is what Morgan sees as a big strength.
"We will get together towards the end of the week. We will discuss our plans and thoughts. And talk about our strengths as a team. The one positive amongst others last year was the versatility in our middle order. The flexibility to promote Sunil [Narine], myself or DK [Karthik]. The strength in the middle order is... if we play well not a lot of teams will enjoy playing against us."
