It's quite a natural shift: Reece Topley on England's leadership transition
This English summer marked the farewell of one of England’s ODI stalwarts, Eoin Morgan.
Morgan, the only English captain to lift the ODI World Cup, bid adieu to international cricket in June. Following his retirement, Jos Buttler was named England's captain in white-ball cricket.
The promising English seamer Reece Topley believes that the leadership’s baton was passed on from Morgan to Buttler in a gradual manner.
Speaking to The Independent, Topley said that he had played under Buttler’s leadership earlier in Morgan’s absence, suggesting the former was going to be an obvious choice for captaincy post Morgan’s retirement.
“I think it’s quite a natural shift actually because in limited games for England, I’ve actually played under Jos as a captain when Morgs (Morgan) was injured or whatever, so it’s actually almost like a seamless transition into it,” Topley said.
Elaborating on the matter, the tall left-arm pacer stressed that although some new faces debuted recently in Buttler’s tenure, the atmosphere in the dressing room continues to be similar to that during Morgan’s era.
“Obviously, there’s some guys that are at the start of an ODI career that have just come into the team as well, but it’s not a case of a rebuild or a different feel in the changing room, and hopefully we get some series wins because I know that Jos will be keen to get his first as a skipper,” he added.
Topley, who starred in England’s 100-run victory in the second ODI against India recently, also considered the upcoming South Africa T20Is as a massive opportunity to finetune his skills ahead of the World Cup in Australia.
“I suppose it is a block of T20 coming up. I think it’s just good tactically for yourself as a cricketer, physically and even mentally; you’re just more clear in your mind about what you’ve got coming up,” the 28-year-old concluded.
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