India vs England | Eoin Morgan insists tri-series games have more significance to them

Eoin Morgan has been looking forward to the prospect of a winner-takes-all showdown at Headingley, after England squared the three-match series with a victory by 86 runs over India in the second ODI. But the limited-overs skipper admitted that he would rather participate in a tri-series than bilateral series.

With little context beyond ranking and bragging rights when two teams meet over a series, Morgan pointed out that bilateral series lack the degree of pressure that comes around in knockout matches of a big tournament. 

"I am not a huge fan of bilateral series," Eoin Morgan said as quoted by Cricbuzz. "Having a game like this is crucial for us. I do prefer a tri-series. The context. Every game brings something different with significance on it."

Ahead of next summer's world cup, a fixture against Virat Kohli's India, who have been ranked second in the ICC rankings, would have been the perfect test. But Morgan was not getting ahead of himself as even if India wins, they would retain their number one ranking regardless of the result. He stated that this has no resemblance to next year's World Cup final.

"No not at all," reiterates Morgan. "The world cup format has changed with the Round Robin, so you have a lot of games you have to turn up and do well on the day. This will be one of them. Given circumstances, conditions - Kuldeep might bowl really well - we just need to be in the frame of mind to play well."

Though Kuldeep Yadav was able to take the first three wickets to fall, England's batsman, notably centurion Joe Root, seemed more adept at picking his variations. Kuldeep picked up six for 25 at Trent Bridge ODI while he finished with three for 68 in the second match. Morgan praised the century from Root and pointed out that the more they played Yadav, easier it would for them to pick him.

"We started better against him. And the more we face him the easier he will be to pick. But you still have to play him well. I thought Joe was quite significant in that - his rotation of strike, his calm head. I thought we did our basics right. It was much better."

There were fears that England might have had their minds muddled by Yadav, especially at the coin toss when Morgan chose to bat first for the first time since August 2016. However, the English batsmen were up to the mighty task of Indian spinners and solved the spinning mystery of Yadav.