Morgan believes his IPL involvement was risk he had to take

The Dublin-born batsman opted to take up a lucrative Twenty20 contract with Kolkata Knight Riders instead of honing his first-class game with Middlesex and, with his batting rival Ravi Bopara deciding to turn down a similar deal to play for Essex, many felt Morgan would be the odd man out when the selectors named their squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka.

Instead, Morgan used his only chance to impress – an England Lions match against the tourists – to hit an eye-catching 193 and edge out Bopara, who made just 17 in the same innings.

Morgan intended to return to the IPL if he missed out on selection, a plan which raised eyebrows in some quarters, but he is content that his high-risk strategy this season has proved the right line to take.

“I wasn’t surprised (to be named in the squad),” said Morgan ahead of Thursday’s match at Cardiff’s SWALEC Stadium.

“I went on the tour to Australia and I’ve been part of the side for some time now. It certainly wasn’t a massive surprise, no. But I knew it (going to India) was a gamble, I knew that from the start.

“You have to gamble in order to throw yourself out there and do well.

“For me it was a hard decision but it was the right one.”

England’s national selector Geoff Miller said at the weekend he planned to talk with Morgan about his priorities after the revelation that he would have returned to the sub-continent had he not been required for Test duty, but the batsman is in no doubt where his heart lies.

“My priorities are quite clear: Test match cricket comes first and always has done,” he said.

“Test match cricket always comes first and foremost. It’s why I play the game, it’s where everybody tests themselves and what everybody is judged on.”

Explaining his intentions to head back to the IPL if not selected, he revealed there were both cricketing and contractual reasons to do so.

Morgan’s selection ahead of Bopara was one of two tricky issues for the England selectors for the summer’s international curtain-raiser, and the team’s first Test since their Ashes triumph.

The other was over the identity of the fourth, and probably spare, seamer in the injury-enforced absence of Yorkshire’s Tim Bresnan.

Steven Finn, who played the first three Tests in Australia before being dropped, earned that call but is expected to play back-up to James Anderson, Chris Tremlett and Stuart Broad.