Seeing red curbs Eoin Morgan's natural instincts

Eoin Morgan is a lucky man. Nit-picking selectors of the old school would not have chosen him because his first-class credentials were insufficient for Test cricket. Moreover, if he had studied the last Bangladesh tour to England, Morgan would have noticed that the No6, Andrew Flintoff, failed to get to the crease in either of the Tests in 2005. Bangladesh took six wickets in that series. There was no chance for England's middle-order batsmen to display their talents. But at Lord's the tourists had taken four wickets soon after tea and out strode Morgan. The innings was hardly in crisis at 258 for four but there was batting to do. Morgan cut a curious figure in white as he emerged from the pavilion, so accustomed are we to seeing him in the vibrant blue and red of the one-day strip. Somehow he looked smaller and frailer. He entered sedately, taking his time, as if reminding himself that this was a different game. Still, he did not look too nonplussed by the sight of a red ball heading in his direction or the fact that the opposition captain had stationed two or three fielders in the slip cordon. How very strange. The last time Morgan had faced a red ball was in rather more mundane circumstances. It was at Swansea on 22 August; he was lbw to Robert Croft in a match Middlesex lost. As he started the long, long climb up those steps at Swansea Morgan would not have dared imagine that his next first-class innings would be in a Test match for England at Lord's. His batting in first-class cricket for Middlesex last summer (average 24 in 11 matches) called into question whether he should be guaranteed a place in the county side. It is tougher for Morgan to establish how to play in Test cricket than for more conventional batsmen such as Jonathan Trott, who just carries on in his not-so-merry way. It was a conundrum that Neil Fairbrother, to whom Morgan is often compared, could never solve. In 10 Tests Fairbrother averaged 15, yet he was a stalwart in 75 ODIs. Perhaps Fairbrother, another idiosyncratic batsman, tried to play too properly in Test cricket. Morgan's challenge is to find that elusive balance. His first delivery was from the seamer Rubel Hossain. As Morgan took guard someone suggested that, if he had real balls, he would go down on one knee and scoop the ball over his shoulder to announce his arrival in the Test arena. But Morgan has ice in his veins, not Red Bull. He tucked his first delivery neatly away on the leg side for a single. He remained discretion personified for half an hour during which he acquired six more singles. A slow handclap would have been harsh but not totally without justification. Then he spied his first boundary as he pulled a short ball from Mahmudullah but it struck Imrul Kayes, who was at short-leg, on the helmet. The ball went nowhere; Kayes, understandably, went to the pavilion. Denied that route to four runs, Morgan soon contrived to hit his first four in Test cricket in the appropriate manner. Down he went to his knees to his 27th delivery and he reverse-swept it to what was the backward-point boundary. In another era we would have been aghast at the audacity of the stroke. Yet here we wondered why he had taken so long to unveil his speciality shot. Out of deference to the red-ball game he had bided his time. Now Morgan was on his way. He seemed to be finding the right balance without any agonising at all. Test cricket was a breeze. But, of course, Morgan, who ended the day on 40, knows Test runs against Bangladesh in England do not mean much. This touring team may be better than the one that came in 2005 but not by a huge margin. So far Morgan, all assurance in the evening sunlight, has merely dipped his toes into the most tranquil waters Test cricket can provide.