What used to be their nemesis is now England's strength. Their journey has a painful past attached to it but they've reached here finally. Hence, skipper Eoin Morgan must be over the moon that the three lions now start off most ODI series as firm favourites to clinch the victory.
The resurgence began after England were given a depressing reminder of how far they are from the rest of this world in one-day cricket during the 2015 World Cup.
That's when Morgan and his men changed the way their country once played and prioritised 50-overs arena. And their efforts have paid off huge dividends ever since, which the top position in ICC ODI rankings perfectly reflect.
"Well, we’re managing quite well at the moment and have done for the last eight or six months," Morgan was quoted saying to The Telegraph (UK), "We’ve gone into every series for the last year and a half as favourites. And we’ve grown in confidence by dealing with that."
"It’s something we’ve come to terms with, we see it as a huge opportunity not only to win some silverware but inspire a new generation as well. One of the big confidence boosters for us is that we can win a game with the ball or the bat. That’s something we didn’t have at the last World Cup."
"We could win the game with the ball, with Jimmy [Anderson] or Broady [Stuart Broad] with the new ball, they’d take two or three early wickets and we’d be on the front foot before we’d even started."
"And we could chase down anything south of 270, which is great, but sides were scoring 330. We didn’t have those capabilities with the bat. It’s great that we have both at the moment."
Morgan recalls how the then director of cricket Andrew Strauss inspired a break from traditional ways and promoted a more attacking brand of the game.
“He selected me for England when he was captain, he backed me when I was first involved – so there’s a huge amount of debt to Andrew. You can’t emphasise enough – to take on that role and make decisions like he did, straight away – not a lot of people do that," he said.
"The first thing they [administrators] do in my experience is have a survey or an analyst to look into something for eight months, then they come up with a three-year plan to save their job. Keep it long lasting, you’re in there for four years."
"Straussy wasn’t in there like that. He was there to make a difference, and the decisions he made, even if they were the wrong ones to start, he was gutsy enough to make them and pull the trigger on them. I have a huge amount of admiration for that."
