England’s one-day captain Eoin Morgan claims it is “ridiculous” to blame their poor Test form on white-ball cricket.

England lost the First Test against Pakistan on Sunday by nine wickets, continuing a dismal run that has seen them win none and lose six of their last eight Tests.

The ODI side, however, keep improving and have won their last six series, including 4-1 and 3-2 away wins over Australia and New Zealand respectively this winter.

Under Andrew Strauss as director of cricket, England have made no secret of their desperation to win 2019’s home World Cup (they have never won a global 50-over event) but Morgan does not believe that has been to the detriment of the Test side.

Morgan said: “It’s ridiculous to blame one format of the sport — one that comes under a lot of scrutiny because people claim 50-over cricket is the worst of the formats. To say it has an impact on the Test team I think is a bit of a ridiculous statement to make.

“As a team, and I’ve certainly played in [struggling] teams, it’s down to the performance, it’s not outside influence. It’s a pretty obvious excuse, that’s what it is.”

Morgan, who on Thursday will lead a World XI against West Indies in a T20 international at Lord’s to raise funds for the repair work of the damage done by Hurricanes Irma and Maria last year, also backed Joe Root to pick the Test side up for the Second Test at Headingley on Friday.

“Joe is well respected within the changing room and I’m sure everyone will not be getting too carried away with this performance,” he said.

“History tells us England have a poor record at Lord’s. Everyone will be looking forward to getting to Headingley so they can prove people wrong and gain some confidence. There are some very good players in that Test team and they will hope Friday comes pretty quickly.”

England will on Wednesday name their first white-ball squad of the summer, for one ODI against Scotland and five against Australia.

With the ODI side so settled, that should prove a far simpler task for Ed Smith, the new national selector, than picking the Test team.

Meanwhile, ICC officials will meet with TV network Al Jazeera later this week to discuss the documentary they aired this weekend alleging that three unnamed English players and two Australians were involved in spot-fixing in Test matches in India. The ICC have requested that Al Jazeera hand over unedited footage.

The three England players will be interviewed by the ICC and had been aware of the documentary for some time before it aired.

All players on that tour were briefed on Saturday by James Pyemont, the ECB’s head of integrity. Pyemont is a former Derbyshire batsman who worked for the Metropolitan Police before joining the ECB and is involved with the governing body’s handling of the issue.