Eoin Morgan, the England limited-overs captain, credited Andrew Strauss for giving the team direction and purpose in becoming the top-ranked one-day international team in the world.
England made wholesale changes to their one-day squad following their group-stage exit at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2015. Those included the introduction of several limited-overs specialists as well as the appointment of Strauss, the former captain, as the England and Wales Cricket Board director of cricket.
Under Strauss, Peter Moores was replaced by Trevor Bayliss as head coach and greater importance was placed on limited-overs cricket. It led to tangible results in the interim four-year period, so much that England are now the team to beat at the 2019 World Cup at home.
“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,” Morgan told the ICC.
“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.”
Morgan also put the transformation down to the lessons learned from their campaign in the 2015 edition in Australia and New Zealand. England suffered heavy defeats against Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and, finally, Bangladesh, which sealed their exit.
“It’s been a long process,” Morgan said. “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 begin the 2019 tournament with a clash against South Africa at The Oval on 30 May.
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