Eoin Morgan believes spin will be key on turning Old Trafford pitches for England's ODI series against Australia and is therefore delighted to have Adil Rashid – who he rates as the best “variation bowler in the world” - in his attack.
Morgan says England have a full squad to select from for the first of three matches on Friday, with Jason Roy and the captain himself over their respective injuries.
England are likely to pick 10 World Cup winners in their XI, with the exception being Sam Billings, who comes in for the absent Ben Stokes, who is in New Zealand.
Rashid was brilliant in England’s 2-1 T20 series win over Australia, picking up six important wickets and never conceding 30 runs in a game. Australia seemed particularly baffled by Rashid’s googly.
Now Morgan believes he will be a key man on Manchester pitches that “will be slow and take a lot of turn”.
With the next T20 and 50-over World Cups taking place in India (in 2021 and 2023 respectively), Morgan is desperate for his team to be challenged by tricky surfaces that do not necessarily suit their all-action brand of biffing.
“For me he’s number one,” said Morgan of Rashid. “He’s the number one variation bowler in the world at the moment. He’s continuing to improve his game. His pace that he bowls has expanded particularly this summer.
“It’s a huge benefit to us playing at Old Trafford, particularly if we play on the wicket I think we’re going to play on which will hopefully be slow and take a lot of turn.
"That’s the sort of wicket we will be more than likely to play on in India in the World Cup of 2023 and to play on that for a period of time will expose us in different areas we need to get better at.
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“Over the course of the last four-and-a-half years we have had to wait to play at Cardiff or Old Trafford or go away on tour to experience those conditions. So hopefully a little more of that will help us get better at what we need to do on those sort of pitches.
“I think going away from what we are strong at will do us good for a period of time. It allows us to focus on things that are our weaker side, so it creates a new dynamic. It's a bigger challenge for our seamers, our batters have gone through that... if we could, that would be brilliant.
"It's logical and the planning makes sense around it, the T20 World Cup in India and then long-term the 2023 World Cup."
Morgan is aware that there is plenty of expectation on his world champions, but knows there is much they can improve on – starting with their fielding.
“I think the expectation outside of our group is higher than it has ever been and it should be - we've got an incredibly talented group of guys who have proved they are good players and collectively we're a hard team to beat,” he said.
"I'd rather go in with a weight of expectation than none at all. We've grown to be comfortable with that expectation over the last few years.
“As a group there are huge improvements to be made, our fielding stood out as being second rate to Australia and and I think more so the different challenges playing a three-match ODI series poses.
"We'll go into every game as a knockout game, as opposed to easing your way into the series over five games.”