‘The best we’ve ever had’: Eoin Morgan set to call time on England career

Eoin Morgan will return on Tuesday to the scene of the World Cup triumph he masterminded three years ago and call time on an England career that will go down in history as one of the most significant of the modern era.

As first revealed by the Guardian, the 35-year-old is poised to confirm his retirement from all forms of international cricket at a press conference at Lord’s on Tuesday afternoon after accepting defeat in his recent battle with form and fitness.

Morgan has long maintained he would stand aside if he felt he no longer merited his spot in the XI but after one half-century in his past 48 innings across international and domestic cricket – ending with two ducks in the Netherlands – the time is now.

A T20 World Cup in Australia later this year, on pitches which should suit England’s army of thunderbats, means Morgan has given his successor – most likely Jos Buttler – and the head coach, Matthew Mott, sufficient time to build their relationship. But the seven-year revolution is unlikely to end with his retirement.

Buttler will take charge of not just a team in Morgan’s image but a generation of cricketers all the way down the food chain who play in the style he dictated; should England go on to unite the T20 crown with the 50-over silverware Morgan lifted at the Home of Cricket on 14 July 2019, his legacy will only be further burnished.

“He obviously feels like he’s done with international cricket,” Moeen Ali, a linchpin of England’s white-ball teams under Morgan, told the BBC’s Test Match Special. “But the team for him still comes first, which just shows how unselfish he is. He’s done a remarkable job – the best we’ve ever had.

“It is and it isn’t [a surprise] at the same time. It is because of the T20 World