England’s recent ODI performances have amazed the entire cricket world. The present no.1-ranked ODI side England is one of the hot favourites to win the upcoming Cricket World Cup. Recently, their limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan has revealed the three major points for their incredible transformation in ODI cricket.
Though England is one of the oldest international cricket teams, they haven’t won a Cricket World Cup yet. In the Cricket World Cup history, their best record is runners-up for the three times (1979, 1987 and 1992).
However, in the last six Cricket World Cups (since 1996), England hasn’t qualified even for the semi-finals. They had a poor experience in the previous Cricket World Cup (2015) in Australia and New Zealand. England massively failed to impress in that tournament as they ended their journey from the Group Stages. In the crucial Group Stage encounter against Bangladesh, England suffered a nervous 15-run defeat which forced them to finish their campaign at the early stage.
Since then, the England cricket team has gradually transformed, and now they are one of the strongest ODI sides. In the last two years, England has achieved massive success in ODI cricket. They are one of the most consistent ODI teams at present. Since May 2018, England is holding the top rank in ODI cricket.
Andrew Strauss’ appointment as the director was crucial
Talking about their recent ODI success, England limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan has credited Andrew Strauss, the former English captain and former England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) director of cricket. While Strauss retired from international cricket in 2012, he took the director role in May 2015. In last October, Strauss resigned from that director post to spend more time with his wife, who was undergoing cancer treatment at that time.
Morgan recently told the ICC, “The appointment of Andrew Strauss, and the direction that he gave myself, the coach and the selectors in how we were going to play our cricket, we were certainly on board with that.
“And then selecting a group of players who played in the manner that we wanted to play, and then trusting them and giving them plenty of time to adapt to the new style of play. I think those three key things were massive in our transformation.”
It’s been a long process – Eoin Morgan about their transformation
Eoin Morgan has taken the regular captaincy charge for England in limited-overs cricket just before the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. Morgan has claimed that the previous World Cup failure was the massive learning for them.
He added about their present success, “It’s been a long process. I think there have been a number of key factors that have contributed to that process. I think certainly learning from the 2015 World Cup was a huge part of that and actually the cornerstone of the thinking behind how we were going to change how we played.”
England will participate in the upcoming 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup as the host side (England and Wales). This 12th edition of the Cricket World Cup will run from 30th May to 14th July. England will start their new World Cup campaign on the opening day (30th May) when they will face South Africa at The Oval (London).