Eoin Morgan says it’s LAUGHABLE for Joe Root to blame The Hundred and T20 for Ashes humiliation

Eoin Morgan appears to have pitted himself against Joe Root by insisting the Test team have ‘always been the priority’ and that people who blame the white-ball game for England’s Ashes humiliation ‘don’t watch cricket’.

England one-day captain Morgan also says it is ‘laughable’ to use the Hundred as an excuse for what happened in Australia following calls for a major shake-up of the domestic schedule.

In the aftermath of their embarrassing 4-0 series defeat Down Under, Test skipper Root urged the ECB to ‘prioritise’ his side, implying there has been too much focus on limited-overs cricket since 2015.

Joe Root has urged the ECB to put more focus onto red-ball games after England’s Ashes loss

Eoin Morgan has branded it ‘laughable’ to blame the Hundred and T20 for England’s Ashes humiliation 

Root also called for more red-ball games to be played at the height of the summer when the ECB’s new short-form tournament, the Hundred, currently takes place.

Morgan, however, believes it is wrong to put the Test team’s demise down to the ECB apparently favouring the white-ball game.

‘People that use that as an excuse don’t watch cricket,’ he told talkSPORT. ‘Test match cricket has always been the priority – it’s the format for our elite players.

‘Obviously times at the moment have been tough down in Australia during the Ashes but they always are. We’ve lost the last two series 4-0.

‘It’s laughable to point the finger at the Hundred. The Hundred is an unbelievable success.

England fell to a 4-0 series defeat to Australia after a miserable Ashes campaign

‘Our formats in county cricket and the Hundred, in the way they’re structured, are exactly the same as Australia’s.

‘People need something to blame so they’ll point at probably the furthest point to reality because nobody wants to say, “You know what, we’ve not had the prep we’d have liked, we probably haven’t played as we’d have liked, and we’ve lost”.

‘That happens in all formats, but I stress Test match cricket has always been the priority.

Morgan has stressed that test cricket has always been the priority over white-ball

‘As a white-ball group, we’ve gone on tours and played in series at home where we haven’t had our full-strength side available – that’s been a constant theme for a number of years now. Obviously Test matches take priority and always do.

‘For the majority of my career, white-ball cricket was an afterthought – 95 per cent of the time was spent around planning and prep for Test match cricket and then when we got to a World Cup, it was like, “Well, if we do well, great, but if we don’t, it’s fine”.

‘With the skill level that guys are producing now on a consistent basis, proven over a long period of time, we’re considered one of the best in the world. Trust me, I’d much rather be considered that than an afterthought.’