England the World Champions

 

A true Revolution in White Ball Cricket

 

ODI WC, 2015, England team got out from group stage by losing to Bangladesh at Adelaide Oval. That moment was a horrible one for a nation like England to feel. A test playing nation, unable to getting into top 8 teams in an ODI WC, in almost home alike condition was a huge shame. And it actually hurt the team very deeply, that inspired them to change their approach and style in the limited overs format.

They made some changes in their system and that was initiated by their captain Eoin Morgan. They prepared a strong white ball team filled with power hitters and players with aggressive approach and players wanting to play different brand of cricket. They made separate teams and separate captains for test format and limited over format (ODIs & T20Is). They selected players with multitasking like both with batting and bowling abilities.

The Revolution Starts:-

After that setback, England has been a power house in white ball cricket with proper attacking approach and nature of play. They started playing a real modern day cricket by which they put fear among other teams. Their only learning from that 2015 campaign was we will only attack, attack and attack. Their bowling unit was never that threatening, so they made their batting a power house.

Scoring 400 in ODIs is a real challenge, but they made it look really easy by their batting. They constantly scored 300 plus scores quite regularly, although in that process they sometimes failed to play full quota of overs. Some of the teams around the World till date hasn’t able to implement that rocking style of play in T20 format yet. But England started this approach since 2015-16 till date in ODI format.

There is a phrase- “Rome was not built in a day”. Its meaning is every good and beautiful thing takes time to built or prepared. It can’t be prepared overnight, not in a day, not even in some short span of time. England’s journey from 2015 till now is a perfect example to that phrase. The path that they choose, post that WC was always going to be risky, but there is a saying, “there is no success without risk”.

They had a straight impact, with their changed playing style in 2016 T20 WC, held in India, where they reach finals but just missed the trophy by small margin. They again stood up and gave another effort in next year, at their home in ICC Champions Trophy 2017. The result didn’t come this time also. They just became a Semi-finalist. But finally they got their reward for their positive and attacking mindset. In 2019 ODI WC, where they were the hosts, they created history by becoming the Champion in WC for first ever time in the 50 over format.

The dream that they had seen 4 years back, at last they fulfilled it and quite brilliantly with their own method of play. After that their target was the shortest format of the game i.e. the T20Is and winning that actually made their vision complete. That was never going to be very difficult for them. But every thing happens when the destiny made them happen.

In 2021 T20 WC, they were clear favorite with their visionary leader and best players in the squad. Their journey was excellent, until New Zealand break their way again in the Semi-finals. But finally after one year they have made it possible in 2022 T20 WC in Australia. Though there were some of the key players from that setup were not part of this victory including their best ever white ball captain, Eoin Morgan. Still they will enjoy each and every moment of this glory.

The Eoin and Hales story:-

Eoin Morgan and Alex Hales two well known faces in English Cricket. They both couldn’t able to celebrate these moments (2019 & 2022 WC), due to their personal problems, but however they both managed to fulfill their dreams and getting success for their country. In Eoin’s case, he actually deserves all the credit, for these moments. Because it is he, who changed this team totally.

He could have been easily part of this WC winning team and could have added another milestone to his name. But the greatness in him is that, he never thought for himself in this journey. In last year’s WC where he was completely out of form, he filled it that, I can’t be just doing captaincy and becoming a loop hole to team’s batting and then eventually retired allowing someone like Jos Buttler to taking his vision forward.

And it is 100% certain that he is now the happiest man in the Earth to see very closely, his team lifting the WC trophy from commentary box. In the other hand Alex Hales who was out of the team due to some discipline violation reasons and almost lost his hopes to serving the nation again, has got his reward for his excellent effort throughout his carrier.

While staying out from the team in past 3 to 4 years, he played so many T20 leagues across the world and performed so well. Morgan’s exit and few more injury issues actually forced to the team management to go back to a inform Alex Hales at this mega event and he has made their decision worth by making his side World Champions.