World Cup cricket is different to all other one-day internationals.
It is all well and good spending four years winning bilateral series when there is not much on the line and you can build fearlessly. England have done that brilliantly — remember when they were five down in their first innings after the last World Cup and just kept whacking it and made 400 for the first time? They have had no fear ever since.
But the World Cup is about who can continue playing without fear when it is everywhere. Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer, the great Australian opening pair, would imagine they were playing in the backyard. When there is the chance to win and lose a World Cup — can you then play the same way?
I have been lucky to play with and against some great sportsmen and all of them at some stage had doubt. Perhaps Shane Warne was the exception. That is a huge thing about sport, even for Tiger Woods in his pomp, doubt crept in. Steve Waugh is remembered as being so mentally tough. But he would admit he had the same fears and doubts as everyone else, he was just better at hiding them.
That is what the World Cup is about — who can silence that nagging thing on your shoulder saying, do I take it on, or do I risk everything?
The team that does that will be frightening to play against. The captain leads the way on this and Eoin Morgan, I think, is the best one at the World Cup. Generally, captains fall into two brackets: those who are tactically shrewd on the field and those who are brilliant off it. In Morgan, England have the best of both. Look at the way he dealt with the awful 2015 World Cup campaign. He followed it with a period of all-out attack and has developed England’s style since.
And more recently, look at the way he dealt with the Alex Hales saga. He put it to bed clinically. You want a leader with a calm exterior in any business as you look up to them. Morgan always appears the same whether things are going right or wrong.
As a captain, I like to think my team-mates did not know what I was thinking. That is why I wore sunglasses even when I did not need to — your eyes tell the whole story! With Morgan, you look into his eyes and you see the same person whatever the situation.
The captains will also set trends at this tournament. One of them will come up with a tactical innovation that takes hold. With high scores and every team boasting brilliant batting, the side best at stemming the flow will prevail. My best guess is that this will lead to captains turning to the most extreme bowler available to them — sheer pace and leg-spin.
The best quicks often do not play too many ODIs between World Cups. Australia were drubbed 5-0 here last summer without Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc but they are all back for the big event. That gives the Aussies — and likewise India with Jasprit Bumrah, England with Jofra Archer and Mark Wood, and the Kiwis — an advantage. A couple of early wickets will make 300 tough to make.
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This will not be a World Cup for the 80mph bowler, the extremes will win it. I could see captains like Morgan turning to Adil Rashid at the death to toss it up in pursuit of a wicket. You risk being smacked, but it is about fearlessness when there is so much on the line.
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