Morgan’s Irish aggression leads traditionally defensive England’s evolution

There’s something Eoin Morgan. Eoin Morgan the captain. Eoin Morgan the leader. And perhaps to some, Eoin Morgan the legend.

His 148-run innings against Afghanistan, which included a record number of 17 sixes, with 11 of them being against the opposition’s main man and the world’s highest-rated spinner - Rashid Khan - spoke volumes about what kind of a player he is.

It gave insight about what kind of leader he is and what kind of team this ‘new’ England is.

In previous years, we saw England lose against Netherlands in 2009, and in 2016 in the World T20. We saw them lose against Scotland in 2018 and Ireland in 2011.

And of course, we saw them lose in 2011 and 2015 against Bangladesh.

But not this side. Not this one led by one Irishman that has helped change the way England play their limited overs cricket.

After that defeat against Bangladesh and the ignominy that followed for being defeated and eliminated from the 2015 World Cup, Morgan decided to change the way things were done.

Yes, he was the captain in 2015 but he had a team full of players from a previous regime, and he was hell bent on changing things.

The bowling got rid of the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad to bring in white ball specialists, Liam Plunkett and Chris Woakes.

Mark Wood and now Jofra Archer were later added to make the pace bowling pack complete.

The batting then had the additions of Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy and most importantly, Ben Stokes to the previous group of Joss Buttler, Alex Hales and of course the world class Joe Root.

Now you had a lineup that had attacking batting from top to bottom and virtually eleven players that could bat.

Having the players is one thing, but getting them to perform as a unit and mix caution with aggression is the real challenge, and that is exactly what Morgan has been able to do.

Since the 2015 World Cup, England are the only team in world cricket to bat with a run rate of over six in ODIs.

And that is not by chance, but with careful and curated planning, led by Morgan on and off the field.

In fact Morgan’s batting has changed too, and evolved with the evolution of the England ODI team.

When he made his England debut, he was mostly a player that could play the sweep and reverse sweep against even the fastest of bowlers and to great success.

Shots down the ground were hardly his forte. But as we saw in his last innings, most of the sixes were down the ground and more proper cricketing shots.

But even Morgan admitted that he didn’t think he could play an innings where over a hundred runs came through sixes.

He had one life when Gulbadin Naib dropped him when he was on 28 off 26 balls.

But from there, he scored 120 run from the next 44 balls, an absolutely astounding bit of acceleration.

"Never have I ever thought I could play a knock like that," Morgan said afterwards at the post-match press conference.

"I've probably played the best in my career over the last four years. But that hasn't involved a 50- or 60-ball hundred. I've scored one at Middlesex, that was 55 or 56 balls, so I thought I would have it in the locker somewhere but it's never happened. So I sort of gave up on it a little bit. The sixes record, along with the innings, are things I never thought I'd do," Morgan admitted.

The left-handed batsman’s average has been an astounding 83.75 in ODI cricket since July 14 2018 with a strike rate of 112.04. In this time, he has scored two centuries and nine fifties in 18 innings.

Morgan’s career average is now just over 40 but he knows that 46 of those fifties could have been converted to add to his tally of 13 centuries.

But the 32-year-old knows that his performances in cricket’s biggest stage will matter most and that’s what he’s been working for over the last four years.

"I would have liked to have got more scores, but this is where it matters. All the work over the last four years, over the course of my career, it all comes to the front now," Morgan concluded.

There may be weaknesses in this England team and they may still falter under pressure, as we saw against Pakistan this World Cup,

But the team is better placed to win a maiden World Cup than it probably ever was, and their top spot in the group stage table also reflects that.