Eoin Morgan sets sights on IPL

England's ODI captain Eoin Morgan has scaled down his Test ambitions to be able to take part in the 2015 IPL. He confirmed he was in the auction to be held in Bangalore on February 16, after having opted out of the previous IPL season because there were three Test spots up for grabs but failing to make it.

Morgan said his plans would not impact England's because only the Test players would have national team commitments. His base price at the auction will be INR 15,000,000.

"I think they [Test ambitions] have been scaled down a bit probably since the start of our summer," Morgan said. "I suppose the opportunity I gave myself in missing the IPL last year and potential carrot of the end of the road was … I think it was three positions available at the start of our summer, and I didn't manage to get any of them. So since then it has been scaled down a bit. The ambition still is to play Test cricket, absolutely, but given where I'm at the moment, I think the IPL is the best thing for me."

One of the biggest criticisms of England's limited-overs game has been that it is not quite in tune with the rest of the world. Not many of England's players participate in Twenty20 tournaments outside England, which is where limited-overs batting is reaching new levels and where bowlers are learning to cope with it. Morgan is England's ODI and T20 captain now. He said the exposure could help England.

"I think it's nice to have one ear to the ground, both playing Big Bash and potentially IPL," Morgan said. "It's very useful because again, cricket is changing so much at the moment, it's nice to have new fresh ideas. And again, opportunity not only for myself but for other English cricketers to go and play, I think they should take it with both hands. It's a great experience, and like the Big Bash it's a huge opportunity to put yourself under pressure and bridge that gap between our domestic game at home and the international game."

There were aspects of the game to be learned from the leagues, Morgan said. "I think death bowling's a big concern for a lot of teams. Given the best death bowlers in the last five years probably have been guys who have unique actions, actually go against the grain of being traditional. And I think a lot of people, a lot of countries, suffer from that problem. The pedigree of bowlers that we have here, obviously everybody prioritises Test match cricket, and they haven't had the opportunity to come and play. But given if the opportunity was available, I think it would be really good for them to hone in on skills that they wouldn't normally get to do."

However, Morgan said it wasn't England's one-day game that suffered from the lack of exposure to T20 leagues outside England. "I wouldn't say it has hampered our one-day cricket," he said. "I think the basics of one-day cricket have remained very traditional for the first 35 overs of the game with the two new balls coming in. And again, looking at our batting order down the line, five, six, seven, eight, it's pretty strong. And given that three of us have played in overseas tournaments has probably helped that. I think a balance of both does work, but the opportunity has to come."