When he first arrived on the scene, Morgan's virtuosity with the bat was so beguiling it even stole Kevin Pietersen's thunder for a while.
Eoin Morgan is England's best Twenty20 batsman but he has been curiously anonymous so far in Sri Lanka. Big tournaments are usually won by big players and England will need him to spark soon, starting with today's (Thursday's) Super Eight match against the West Indies, if they are to have any chance of making the semi-finals back in Colombo.
When he first arrived on the scene, Morgan's virtuosity with the bat was so beguiling it even stole Kevin Pietersen's thunder for a while.
But however original the shots or how deft the execution of them, batting remains a game of confidence and Morgan's appears to have ebbed and flowed like the Liffey at Ringsend.
You have to go back 10 matches to find a defining contribution for England's T20 side, a 49 against India at Old Trafford in August last year. In 50-over cricket, the figures have been better, though not so good as to do justice to his exceptional talent.
If ever there was a time for everything to click into place it is over the next week and then back in Colombo for the denouement.
"Eoin brings experience and calmness to our middle-order, he obviously plays spin really well," said Stuart Broad yesterday.
"I think this is where he will shine - he shines when he is under pressure and the team is under pressure. Every game from now is a win game. This is where you are looking for your key men to shine and I fully believe Morgs will do that."
For every player that responds positively to the straitjacket of pressure there is one that becomes less effective, though Broad believes his team, which lost by a record 90-run margin to India last week when the result had no consequence, play better when the squeeze is on.
"I think we are a better team when we have stuff to play for," admitted Broad. "We have five games now and want to push to win all of them. As professional sportsmen, you are always better under pressure because that is where you live, that's what you thrive off. You've seen many examples - I remember Paul Collingwood back in 2008 was getting hammered by critics and then whacked a hundred at Edgbaston.
"There are so many examples of players who have been under pressure and then flown out of the blocks and done something special. But I don't think as a team we are under pressure because we have played some really good cricket over the last two weeks. We've had one blip and it's better to have that now than in a semi-final."
That blip, which saw India's two spinners Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla (their best tweaker Ravichandran Ashwin was rested that game) take six wickets for 25 runs, has alerted every team to crank up their spinners against England, no matter how talented they are.
West Indies have two decent ones in Sunil Narine and Samuel Badree, and two who can do a decent job in Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels.
Badree hasn't featured yet and might not again today, but the West Indies's match against England at Pallekele will follow on the same pitch as the game between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, and that might slow it down and encourage spin. England will certainly be watching with a view to replacing Tim Bresnan with Samit Patel from the team that lost to India.
"We will definitely look to bowl spin against them but we have quality seam bowlers in Fidel Edwards and Ravi Rampaul," said Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain. "I think every one who comes on to bowl has a big part to play but Sunil is our trump card. He's a guy who believes he can learn new stuff and when you see him in practice he tries new run-ups and actions.
"He has done well for us in international matches and hopefully he'll have a big impact on the English batting line up."
England beat the West Indies over all formats earlier this year at home, without Pietersen in two of them, so should prevail again. The pitch here is hard and grips far less for the spinners than Colombo, while the boundaries seem a decent size in all directions, a feature that should force the West Indies power hitters, like Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Sammy, at least to have to middle the ball to get six.
Broad's team would be more confident with Pietersen in the side but if West Indies are taking succour from his absence, they are not crowing about it.
"It's not my problem, so I'm not bothered," said Sammy, having gone through something similar with Gayle when the latter had his own stand-off with the West Indies Board recently.
As for Broad, he appeared to be blending in with the locals with what seemed to be a permanent tilak, the ritual mark on the forehead you see out here and in India. Mostly made from vermilion paste his was caused by a flying arm in the hotel pool as Bresnan attempted a length of backstroke.
Very visible, it could be used as a litmus test to England's progress on the pitch a bit like the shepherd's warning - red dot pale, skipper hale; red dot dark, skipper narked.
The Daily Telegraph
261751 GMT Sep12
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