Around 4 years ago at Adelaide under the captaincy of Eoin Morgan himself, England were knocked out of the World Cup by Bangladesh. One of the darkest days of English Cricket as they continued to struggle in ODI cricket against all sides. Eoin Morgan took over the reins of captaincy from Alastair Cook just before the WorldCup, as English Cricket decided to make Eoin Morgan in charge of a struggling ODI side.
The problem with England a few years ago was their old fashioned way of playing white ball cricket. They hardly posted big totals on the board and believed in playing “ Textbook Cricket”. After the 2015 Cricket World Cup, the skipper Morgan wanted a change of mindset and wanted his players to play a fearless brand of cricket. In Partnership with Trevor Bayliss who had been a very successful coach in the IPL that helped KKR win two titles, combined together to change England Cricket Completely.
In the very next series after the WorldCup, England were up against the Runner ups of the Cricket World Cup New Zealand. No one gave England the chance as New Zealand were coming on the back of a highly successful campaign of the World Cup. The England side made some major changes as white ball specialists such as Jason Roy, Joss Buttler, Adil Rashid were picked in the side. England from ball one of the series dominated New Zealand as they played without any fear, and produced totals consistently of over 350 runs. This was a conscious effort made by England to change their style of play and Captain Morgan was instrumental in his side’s transition as he led from the front with the bat and batted without any fear of getting out.
Morgan had announced that England will continue to play the shorter form of Cricket in a manner where their first instinct would be to hit the ball out of the park. England won the series convincingly as they had their sites sent on the next World Cup which was in their own backyard.
Morgan and his team continued to dominate in both t20 cricket and ODI Cricket as they consistently won series home and away. Captain Morgan always believed in his and his team’s ability and continued to decimate bowling attack all around the world. England currently is the number one side in ODI cricket and overwhelming favourites to lift the World Cup and the credit for this resounding change goes to their Captain Eoin Morgan.
Morgan is the highest run-scorer for England in ODI cricket and has hit the most number of sixes. Yesterday his record-breaking innings has put Morgan among the finest White ballplayers England has ever Produced. He hit as many as 17 sixes against Afghanistan and shattered the record for the most number of sixes by an individual in ODI cricket. England’s Captain before Mogan, Cook had hit only 10 sixes in his whole ODI career. The shift in the mindset and approach of English Cricket has helped them produced some of the most astonishing results. Opposition teams now fear England especially when they bat first, as they know England has the capability of chasing targets of even around 400. Morgan after his outrageous innings stated, “ I never imagined that I would ever play a record-breaking inning.” Morgan smashed 148 off just 71 balls at Old Trafford and took England to an enormous total of 398 runs.
Morgan’s side is well and truly on their way to the semifinals of the World Cup. From then onwards it’s about who plays better on the day, but one thing is for sure, Morgan and his team won’t die wondering. They will continue to back their instincts and play attacking and dynamic Cricket.
