Eoin Morgan calls for spin-friendly conditions to assist England's World Cup preparation

NICK HOWSON: The next 20 and 50-over World Cups are bound for India and with the skipper relishing three ODIs against Australia at Old Trafford,he wants his team to be challenged going forward

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England captain Eoin Morgan wants his world champions pushed out of their comfort zone by spinning pitches during their preparation for two World Cups in the next three years in India.

Due to this year's showcase in Australia being postponed, the next T20 World Cup will be staged in India in 2021.

And England will defend their 50-over title back in the sub-continent come 2023.

Preparation for those tournaments begins on Friday with the first of three one-day internationals against Australia at Emirates Old Trafford, where spin is expected to be prevalent.

Morgan wants grounds people across the country to produce wearing surfaces to test his side, to ensure they don't have to wait for tours to Asia to play on worn pitches.

"Going away from what we're strongest at will do us some good for a period of time," the skipper said of the ODI No.1 ranked nation.

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"It allows us to focus on things that are our weakest side and creating another dynamic or more rounded game is important and is probably a bigger challenge for our seamers than our batters. 

"If we could (play on spinning pitches) then that would be brilliant. It is logical and the planning would make sense around given the immediate T20 World Cup and then the long term for 2023 as well."

On the conditions the 34-year-old expects to find in Manchester, he added: "It is a huge benefit to us playing at Old Trafford. If we play on the wicket we think we're going to play on, it will hopefully be slow and take a lot of turn. 

"That is very useful considering that's both our weakest point and is more than likely what we'll play in India in 2023. 

"If we had a choice of grounds to only play at for the new period of time, this would be one of them. It exposes us in a number of different areas and we need to get better at playing on those types of surfaces.

"Over the course of the last four-and-a-half years we've had to wait either to play Cardiff, Old Trafford or go away on a winter tour to experience those conditions. Hopefully, learn more and upskill in what we want to do in order to try and get better at playing on those types of pitches."

^{England are back at Emirates Old Trafford where they are expecting alien conditions}

Bar the unavailable Ben Stokes and a discarded Liam Plunkett, England could name nine of their World Cup final XI for the first ODI against Australia.

Jos Buttler, Joe Root and Chris Woakes have all returned, while Morgan himself is fit after missing the third T20 with a finger injury.

"The expectation inside our own group is higher than it has ever been," said the Middlesex man on the prospect of much of that playing XI featuring again.

"We have an incredibly talented group of guys who have proven they're very good players and collectively if we perform together we're a very hard side to beat. 

"I'd much rather go in with a weighted level of expectation than none at all and then a win comes as a surprise. We've grown into becoming comfortable with that expectation over the last few years and slowly it has crept in to our minds throw levels of performance."

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