Cinematic England Turnaround in White Ball Cricket

 

                                    pic credit: ICC, ECB 

Eoin Morgan and his men were in deep agony, heads down, caps off, distressed, and posing like effigies, pretending that this shouldn’t have been on their cards at this stage. Rubel Hossain had just shattered Stuart Broad’s stumps to knock England out of the ODI World Cup 2015 in Australia in the group stage only.

This was the moment England Cricket revolutionized. English captain Morgan sat and decided to change this dated style of approach and adopt a more rigorous way of playing white-ball cricket. A style more worthy of sustaining in this world of more competitiveness and stakes. Albeit, they were going in from the transition phase with more veterans going down from the line of white ball cricket after the early-stage debacle, ultimately paving way for some young and energetic lads who had the sense of attacking and fearlessness already instilled in their veins.

Modern cricket had to find its way anyhow, and it decided to stand up in the form of Morgan and his lads who were all set to change the perception of playing limited-overs cricket. After their few post world cup performances, it felt that this was an utter shame that England cricket didn’t play the final against the mighty Australians on the iconic MCG.

The change was there surely, as one can see from their performance in the next ICC event which took place just 1 year later in India in the form of the shortest format and it was English cricket’s world cup unarguably unless the Carlos Braithwaite happened.

It was he who stood between England and the transformation. The big guy from Windies smashed the churning Ben Stokes out of the park for four consecutive deliveries to snatch out a T20 WC trophy from the 2010 champions. As Ian Bishop in an enormous flabbergasted sound screamed, “Carlos Braithwaite…remember the name...” Stokes was in despair.

Who had imagined though, that in a span of 6 years, this statement would ideally suit one man on the other side of the 2016 final night who had fitted a chip on the minds of the cricket worshipers around the world to be remembered for his unusual heroics in the most dramatic situations for England, ranging from 2019 World Cup masterclass, especially the final match at Lord’s against the Kiwis, that Edgbaston thriller in Ashes 2019, and the most recent one against Pakistan at the same MCG where they would have dreamt of in 2015 world cup.

Although, the man behind all this, Eoin Morgan was doing commentary for sky sports during England’s historic run chase against Pakistan in the WC final which made them the first team to be the ODI and T20 cricket’s biggest event champs. He must have been above the stars as the dream he saw as a captain was fulfilled after he hung up his boots following his rusting form.

Since that loss to Bangladesh in Adelaide, England has the feat of scoring 300+ totals for the most time in ODI innings as well as crossing the 400 mark too. In the process, they registered the first three of the highest ever ODI totals a team has scored in an inning with the highest being the 498/4 against the Netherlands earlier this year with skipper Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan, and Philip Salt putting their centuries respectively. Their previous best was 481/6 against Australia known for Hales and Bairstow’s exploits.

This World Cup win may be acknowledged by Jos Buttler’s win for the forthcoming generation, but the seeds of the plant were sown by the legendary skipper Eoin Morgan, who is desperate and disturbed on the most furious night was thinking of the bright future that England cricket will see and the impact it will create even after he himself will leave the field and pass the baton.