Eoin Morgan will captain England's bid to add World T20 crown to World Cup triumph
Joe Root will continue as Test captain regardless of new coach
Saturday 21 September 2019 11:26, UK
World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan is committed to leading England through to the ICC World Twenty20 World Cup, says Ashley Giles.
Morgan said he was undecided on his international future after guiding England to their first global 50-over title in May, admitting the campaign had left him "knackered".
But after a period of reflection, the 33-year-old will continue as skipper for at least another year to oversee England's bid for an historic limited-overs double by winning the T20 World Cup - a trophy won by Paul Collingwood's team in 2010.
Confirmation of Morgan's desire to carry on came from Giles, managing director of England' Men's Cricket, who also revealed that Joe Root will continue as Test captain regardless of who becomes the new coach in the wake of Trevor Bayliss' departure.
Root was unable to regain the Ashes lost under his leadership in 2017/18 but did salvage a 2-2 draw against Australia with a comprehensive four-day victory in the fifth Test at The Oval.
The skipper subsequently stressed his desire to carry on and lead England in Australia in 2020/21, rejecting suggestions that the captaincy is affecting his form, and Giles says he is fully behind the Yorkshireman.
"There have been no questions asked [about Root's future] by me," said Giles. "I would hope that is the most important thing for now. One of the most important things for Joe is that we now redress that balance between red and white-ball cricket and when the new coach arrives Joe gets a choice to sit down with him and really plan and decide a way forward.
"If I were Joe, and we've had these discussions, we need to start planning towards winning the Ashes back in Australia."
The ECB hopes to appoint a replacement for Bayliss in time for the upcoming tour of New Zealand, which you can watch live on Sky Sports Cricket.
Candidates for the position will be interviewed imminently once a shortlist is drawn up in around a week's time; if no appointment is possible before the squad departs for New Zealand, then an interim coach will oversee the tour.
Explaining the process, Giles explained: "The search is in full swing now, so at the moment I'm having a number of long telephone conversations.
"I'm trying to gather whether there is interest from different parts of the world, from different candidates and I hope that by the end of next week we will be able to get that down to a relatively short list and we can start talking about interviews.
"It's an exciting process because it's my first big appointment and we need to get right.
"I've been pretty clear that I think one coach across all formats is right; as we need to manage the player workloads so we need to manage our coach workloads as well.
"So if we operate with one head coach and three assistants, they are going to need time off as well but that might be an opportunity for others to lead across different formats. But I think that one voice at the top is important."
Watch England's tour of New Zealand live on Sky Sports Cricket this November. For more details click here.
