From World Cup 2015 Debacle To 2019 World Champions ! Journey Of Team England.

The Resurgent Team England has finally won the world cup after 44 years, ages !!! since they have won a world cup when they last became the finalists in 1979, 1987 and the 1992 world cup. It is ironical in fact that the country who has invented the sport has not tasted success in the ICC Tournaments, be it in Champions Trophy or World Cups, only trophy which they won was the T20 Tournament in 2010 held at the West Indies. They have been dominating the white ball format since last 4 years than nobody else is. Inconsistency and Form had been worrying for the England Team as they could’nt find ways to win and their approach to white ball cricket was also conservative and orthodox. They used to play old fashioned cricket and did not have an attacking mindset or approach to white ball cricket, which was lacking in English Cricket, they has always prioritized Test Cricket or the “Red Ball Cricket” from their inception into cricket with the team tasting success with help of such big names in the English cricket namely “Anderson’s!”, "Broad’s!”, "Flintoff’s,” and “Pietersen’s” performing consistently for England in all formats and have been the “Ashes Heroes” for them. Huge part of the team depended on the “3 pillars” of the english cricket but were not quite successful to win their maiden ICC World Cup Trophy for England.

A team that has crossed semi-finals three times and have failed on the big stage, Are they chokers? No, not at all , to say the least they have a decent record in world cups! it is just the inconsistency and approach that had to be changed from the ECB’s perspective among the players to play fearless and bold cricket which is the very essence of a white ball cricket. Things became even worse when they had to deal with major cricketing world cup upsets at the hands of Ireland in the 2011 World Cup, when it looked like England were cruising at one stage, came the “Kevin O Brein’s class” and an century that stunned the whole crowd at the Chinnaswammy. Then came a close match against Bangladesh which they lost and became another upset for the team in the 2011 World Cup. The next edition of the World Cup in 2015 also proved to be a huge debacle for the Team England when they lost to the opening match against Australia, miserably to New Zealand and Sri Lanka which then followed by another world cup upset against Bangladesh which nearly confirmed their exit from the tournament and it was here in Adelaide and against the same opposition that knocked them out in the group stage, their ony win coming against Scotland, which sums up their performance in the 2015 edition.

It was really a nightmare for the English fans and Players and a World Cup to forget that lead to an unceremonious exit from the World Cup left Morgan and his company to put on their thinking caps until the next edition of the World Cup, there was no looking back after that, they prepared hard, got in new players and changes also had been made in the team management and the captain Morgan, who was going to be the skipper till the next world cup had the responsibility on his shoulders to change the mindset of the players and insisted on playing fearless, bold and expressive cricket and more emphasis was given to white ball cricket then Test Cricket. It is now surprising to see that Englsih Cricket is changed now which was seen earlier with the old english team. They started believing in themselves and started playing expressive and bold cricket which lead to many records been broken like the highest ODI Score was set by England in the an day clash between their ashes rival and have set a benchmark for other teams to show how they play their cricket ! One thing that has changed is the players and playing style which has seen fascinating results for them in the past 4 years. It has been a dramatic turnaorund, with batsmen striking the ball from the very beginning and laying a platform for the coming batsmen to settle and play big in the slog overs. They are known to be a balanced side now with the aggressive top order in the form of the Roy’s, Bairstow’s, Root’s , Morgan’s and Buttler’s with the latest inclusion being Jofra Archer, an barbados born cricketer, which had impressed in the IPL got a chance to play for England in the World Cups.

The hosts were known as the Firm Favourites before the start of the world cup and rightly said so, the results went in their way against South Africa, Bangladesh, Australia (in semis), New Zealand (in group stage and finals) which they won on the basis of the boundary count and Afghanistan with a close game against the second team tagged as the Pre-Tournament Favourites. This was the greatest chance for the team to bring the trophy home after the 2015 World Cup Debacle, and boy! have they have achieved it with some flair and style to lift their maiden cup in WC 2019 ? Yes they have and the hard work and changes in the team management have paid off for Morgan and his men with some luck as well. They have set an benchmark for the other teams and for themselves and are becoming the superpower in world cricket after what Australia achieved it in early and late 1990’s with their team batting till number 9 and intent of hiiting the ball out of the park from the word “Go”! Really Fascinating 4 years of turnoround for England after a disastrous World Cup 2015 campaign and a team to beat in the white ball format.