13 July,2019 07:55 AM IST | | Santosh Suri
Captain Eoin Morgan (right) celebrates England's semi-final win over Australia with Joe Root in Birmingham on Thursday. Pic/Getty Images
Birmingham: Eoin Morgan is one of the architects of the new, aggressive England side ever since he took over as captain just before the 2015 World Cup.
From the nadir of a humiliating exit at the league stage itself four years ago, they have transformed into a top-class ODI team under the Dublin-born English captain. It's his never-say-die Irish spirit that the current English side has embraced and that has made a world of a difference to the way they have played white-ball cricket since.
"Yes, it's been a process for the last four years. In 2015, we were way off the mark, we struggled against the top teams, and the teams that sat below that, so there was quite a drastic change in the way we played and the way we looked at playing our 50-over cricket. That has worked out extremely well for us and given the support that we've had throughout, the ECB, the backroom staff, as players we have taken that, I suppose, as far as we can so far," he said about England's journey during the last four years.
In this World Cup too, from the brink of elimination after defeat at Lord's to the same Australians whom they outplayed in the semi-final, England have now won three in a row to set up a final clash with New Zealand at the Mecca of cricket tomorrow.
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Morgan said that despite the burden of expectations, the team would go into the final with same positive attitude and play their aggressive brand of cricket. "I think Sunday's not a day to shy away from, it's a day to look forward to, much like this. We have created the opportunity to play in a World Cup final. It will be a matter of the same team again trying to produce everything that we can performance-wise but also enjoying the day."
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