• Mishits

Morgan misses call of duty... 20 times

Eoin Morgan has a mixed record as a stand-in captain for England © Getty Images

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Captaining his country at the highest level is meant to be the pinnacle of any sportsman's career.

For an Irishman with a Welsh name playing cricket for England, national pride is already a muddled concept, but Eoin Morgan complicated matters further when he missed 20 phone calls from national selector James Whitaker, who was trying to offer him the role of England one-day captain.

"I thought I better give him a ring," Morgan explained. "And he said 'we'd like to offer you the captaincy'.

"I was delighted to be asked. Being offered the captaincy is awesome. It's a huge honour to lead an extremely talented group of guys during a really exciting period."

Born in Dublin, Morgan made his international bow for Ireland in 2006, but swiftly outgrew his native country and switched allegiances to England three years later.

He was appointed as Alastair Cook's replacement on Saturday, following England's calamitous 5-2 series defeat against Sri Lanka.

Morgan, 28, has already captained England in eight one-day internationals, leading his side to an indifferent record of three victories, four defeats and one no-result.

Most recently, he presided over England's six wicket loss to Sri Lanka on December 7, compounding the misery by receiving a fine for the match's slow over-rate.

His first matches as permanent captain will be World Cup warm-ups against Australia and India in late January, before England begin their World Cup campaign against Australia on February 14 at the MCG in Melbourne.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd