Eoin Morgan credits Lord's for helping develop reverse sweep
Monday 13 April 2020 08:14, UK
Eoin Morgan credits having Lord's as his home ground early on in his career for helping him develop the reverse sweep.
The high-yield shot has long been part of Morgan's batting repertoire and England's limited-overs captain says playing at the Home of Cricket as a teenager helped him hone the skill.
"I started playing reverse sweep when I first came to London as a 16-year-old and signed up at Middlesex," said Morgan in an interview with his IPL team, the Kolkata Knight Riders.
"Playing at Lord's, the boundaries were very short square of the wicket and they are really long straight.
"When I played in the first team as a 17, 18-year-old, trying to clear the long straight boundary at Lord's was very difficult for me.
"So I started playing a lot more sweeps than probably your average player just because they were more effective at our home ground."
Often employed against spinners, the unorthodox reverse sweep is an effective shot to negate field placings but the World Cup-winning captain said he was not using it as often these days as opponents had become wise to it.
"The reverse sweep has been one of my favourite shots because it's been so effective over the years," said the 33-year-old.
"I probably play it less and less now because things have changed and people have started setting fields for that."
