Darren Gough believes Eoin Morgan's white-ball team is getting preference over Joe Root's Test side
Former England international Darren Gough believes Eoin Morgan's white-ball team is getting preference over Joe Root's Test side. Gough raised question marks over England's rotation policy and said that they should have gone with a full-strength team for the four-Test series against India.
England currently finds themselves 2-1 down with one Test left in the series. Following their defeat in Ahmedabad, they are also out of contention for the ICC World Test Championship final.
Speaking on Talksport, Darren Gough said Joe Root should be an unhappy man as he hasn't been allowed to field a full-strength side.
"If I was Joe Root, I’d be livid; I feel for him because I believe one-day cricket has taken a high preference this time, just as he was getting something together with this team. Eoin Morgan has got his preferences over the Test side," said Gough.
England sent back Moeen Ali ahead of the third Test and went in with just one specialist spinner for the pink-ball game. Ali certainly would have had a role to play on the Ahmedabad surface if he was made available for selection.
Jos Buttler is another player who returned home after the first Test in Chennai. Meanwhile, Jonny Bairstow only joined the squad after the second Test.
Darren Gough wants England to give fringe players a chance in ODIs and T20Is
Given England's white-ball team is more settled, Darren Gough opines that the visitors should give fringe players a chance in the white-ball format.
"I know we are building towards the T20 World Cup in India, but our main players are settled; they don’t need to play every 50-over or 20-over game. For the T20 series, we should have gone in with some fringe players and seen who was ready to push for that squad," Gough said.
Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler will join the England squad for the T20I series against India, starting from 12th March. Joe Root, meanwhile, is not expected to play the white-ball leg of the tour.