Liam Livingstone settling down to his role among England’s entertainers

It was a subtle shifting of the shadows. As Eoin Morgan sat out optional nets at the leafy Amstelveen ground, his likely successor in the England middle-order, Liam Livingstone, bounded out of practice for the third and final one-day international on Wednesday.

Morgan, who is carrying various injuries to his upper right leg, said before this series against the Netherlands that he would take the summer slowly to ensure his battered body makes it through to the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November and, far less likely, the 50‑over World Cup a year later.

His two visits to the crease in Amsterdam have made anxious watching, however, with a first‑ball nought and then a seven-ball anguish of an innings: frustrated shots before toe-ending a catch to the waiting fielder at point. In his past 50 innings in all formats, international and domestic, he has made one half-century.

Livingstone, on the other hand, is hitting a ball as if he is playing swingball in the garden. Fresh from the Indian Premier League, where he tonked the biggest six of the tournament and had a successful campaign with Punjab Kings, he biffed a 17-ball 50 on Friday, the fastest by an Englishman – and a record held previously by Morgan.

The success was welcome – “it was nice to finally get the monkey off my back about not being able to do it in the IPL” – and feeds into everything, including his astonishing ability to hit the ball out of the ground immediately after arriving at the crease. But it has taken work.

“It’s something that’s probably got me into this team,” he said, with England going into the match on Wednesday with the series in the bag after two victories.

“It wasn’t something I did a lot at the start of my career, so the most