![\"Kevin](\"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Kevin-Pietersen-ICC.jpg\")
Kevin Pietersen knows the moment England became ICC Men\u2019s Cricket World Cup favourites \u2014 the day they finally learned to lose.<\/p>\nKevin Pietersen knows the moment England became ICC Men\u2019s Cricket World Cup favourites \u2014 the day they finally learned to lose.<\/p>\n
Four years ago Eoin Morgan\u2019s team suffered a miserable tournament, winning just two of their six games – against Scotland and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
But since then they\u2019ve established themselves as a white ball powerhouse, topping the ODI world rankings as they\u2019ve won 15 of 19 intervening series under coach Trevor Bayliss.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s a change in mindset that Pietersen credits with the transformation of fortunes ahead of the hosts\u2019 opening match with South Africa at the Oval.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo much credit must go to Eoin Morgan, he\u2019s cool, he\u2019s calm and he has the backing of his players, which is the most important,\u201d said Pietersen, as the tournament kicked off with an opening party under the shadow of Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players have felt energised by the positivity in which he backs them but I think the most encouraging thing about this England team is Eoin allows them to fail.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you are allowed to fail you can play some unbelievable sport. In all walks of life, if you are allowed to make mistakes and know you are still going to get backed, that\u2019s empowering. That is what Morgan has done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pietersen, who won the ICC Men\u2019s T20 World Cup in 2010, was established in England\u2019s dressing room when Morgan arrived for his debut in 2009.<\/p>\n
But he was never in any doubt what the player would achieve.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see that there was something special about him,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing about Eoin Morgan is the ability to hit a boundary and then get off strike the next ball. I think that that takes a lot of skill.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have that when I was playing one-day cricket. I got myself into many an occasion where I just could not rotate strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not surprised what he\u2019s done because I was sat on a train with him years ago talking about the way we need to play positive cricket.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just beautiful to see the way English players are playing now. It\u2019s something that makes me so happy. Eoin has transformed England.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pietersen is backing England, India and Australia to make the semi-finals with Jason Holder\u2019s West Indies his outsiders to play beyond their world ranking.<\/p>\n
England\u2019s recent success makes them the ones to beat – but Pietersen cautions against believing the trophy is already won.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got nine games and you\u2019ve got the comfort to maybe lose a couple but they don\u2019t want to lose that first game against South Africa,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is very different from a bilateral series, where you are just playing against team after team. This is big, this is real big.\u201d<\/p>\n
Courtesy: www.icc-cricket.com<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kevin Pietersen knows the moment England became ICC Men\u2019s Cricket World Cup favourites \u2014 the day they finally learned to lose.<\/p>\n
Four years ago Eoin Morgan\u2019s team suffered a miserable tournament, winning just two of their six games – against Scotland and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
But since then they\u2019ve established themselves as a white ball powerhouse, topping the ODI world rankings as they\u2019ve won 15 of 19 intervening series under coach Trevor Bayliss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket-cricket"],"yoast_head":"\n