Eoin Morgan will benefit away from England duty, says Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen believes Eoin Morgan is getting a greater benefit from playing in the Indian Premier League than he would by starting the season on England duty.

After a poor England performance at the World Cup, for which the Dubliner captained the side, Morgan headed to India to play for the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

He shone on Thursday with a 28-ball innings of 63 against the Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai, comfortably his most impressive effort of the campaign.

England will be without Morgan when they take on Ireland in Malahide on Friday, but Pietersen believes the national team can cash in on a longer-term basis if the left-hander bats himself into form.

“Everybody needs runs. For him this is brilliant; for England this is even better — he’s their captain,” Pietersen said.

“You’ve got guys who play like this against England — you saw it at the World Cup.

“You’ve now got players — and he’s one of the players that England have — who can hit sixes and take teams apart.”

The move came off the back of a forgetful World Cup for the former Ireland batsman. Appointed captain shortly before the tournament began in a controversial move that saw Alastair Cook dropped, Morgan could not shake off poor batting form and also saw his side fail to go beyond the group stage.

Speaking on Sky Sports 2, Pietersen said: “This might sound controversial and I’m not one to mix my words, but he’s playing in the IPL and he’s playing against (Shane) Watson, (Chris) Morris, (Pravin) Tambe, and he’s surrounded by (Sunrisers bowling coach Muttiah) Muralitharan, VVS (Laxman, team mentor), he’s got all these blokes around him — superstars.

“This is benefiting his game. I know he’s under a lot of pressure because he’s not playing in Malahide tomorrow, but I prefer seeing Eoin Morgan doing this in the IPL than playing in Malahide tomorrow.”