Eoin Morgan’s brutal 148 shows he practises what he preaches

Eoin Morgan played the perfect captain’s innings against Afghanistan on Tuesday. Where once the phrase meant defiance in the face of adversity, here the message to his England teammates was that it was time to take the aerial route.

Related: Eoin Morgan launches England to easy World Cup win over Afghanistan

Morgan arrived at the crease in the 30th over with the score a respectable – but not yet incendiary – 162 for two. Joe Root was pootling along nicely on 45, as he has done all World Cup, while Jonny Bairstow had just been dismissed for a neatly measured 90 from 99 balls that laid the platform.

But what was needed was an injection of nitromethane if the decision to bat first was to be truly exploited. Jos Buttler is usually the weapon of choice for such situations but Morgan, who had come into the match under an injury cloud after back spasms, fancied it. What followed was utterly breathtaking.

Gulbadin Naib, who offered Bairstow two tickets to the gun show when celebrating his removal, overstepped for the sixth ball Morgan faced and suddenly a free hit was on offer. The Afghanistan captain gambled on a slower ball in response, only to see Morgan rock back and send the white Kookaburra soaring over deep midwicket and into the revellers.

The very next ball Morgan charged Naib and drove high and handsomely towards the Brian Statham End. He went on to hit an incredible 15 more sixes – a century of runs in just 17 shots – amid a career-best 148 from 71 balls that left Root for dust and reduced Afghanistan to rubble.

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“Never have I thought I could play a knock like that. I’m delighted I have,” said Morgan after the 150-run win. “It makes it a bit more special when I can compete with the youngsters in the side. I’ve become a target for guys because the hundred I scored [from 57 balls] is considered a slow one in our dressing room. It’s a tough school.”

Morgan created this tough school. Remember the batsman who switched allegiance from Ireland to England back in 2009 and bundled his new teammates into the DeLorean for a trip to the future via an array of ramps, sweeps, reverse sweeps and even the odd reverse-reverse sweep?

These days such shots remain largely stashed in the boot – he produced only a couple here – with a simpler approach employed. Morgan remains still at the crease, side on to the bowler and, without clearing the front leg like so many others, strikes through the line with just a hint of those rubbery wrists for added power.

If the player has changed over time then, since the 2015 World Cup, Morgan the captain has never once wavered in terms of the cricket he wants from his team. His subordinates are constantly pushed to expand their minds, free their arms and set the trend, rather than follow it. Collapses have been met with the instruction to smarten up but, crucially, not rein it in.

The result is such that the demolition of the Afghan attack, in which England broke their own record with 25 sixes in the innings and posted the highest ODI score at Old Trafford (as well as the highest of the World Cup to date), was surprisingly unsurprising. It’s what they do these days – just ask Tim Paine, the former Australia captain who stuck them in at Trent Bridge last year and watched 481 for six unfold.

Amid this latest display of carnage came a remarkable demolition job on Rashid Khan, the uber-talented wrist-spinner who tears up the Twenty20 leagues and sat atop the ODI bowling rankings less than a year ago, but must now chew on career-worst figures of nine overs, none for 110.

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Never before had Rashid gone for more than 68 runs from his allocated set of 10, nor been hit for two sixes in an over. Morgan did this to the 20-year-old twice here and cleared the rope seven times off his bowling in total – the most by one batsman off one bowler in an ODI.

It was Bairstow who first climbed into Rashid, watchfully seeing out a couple of overs after his late introduction before slog-sweeping a four and then pinging the sweetest of full-blooded swipes for six.

Bairstow returned from his maiden spell in the IPL earlier this year gushing about everything he had learned; keeping wicket to Rashid at Sunrisers Hyderabad, and thus getting a handle on his sleight-of-hand magic tricks, must sit high pretty on that list.

Along with Kevin Pietersen, it was Morgan who was quick to recognise that the power of the IPL went beyond just cash in the bank. The England captain has curiously gone unsold in the last two auctions. Next time the gavel comes out, he may well have some suitors.