After two World Cup campaigns with very different results and a personally difficult start to the year, the slimmer and more focused Harry Brook is starting this last campaign for world Fame and is convinced that England has the power to take home the trophy.
This would certainly change the narrative from the end of last year in India, where Jos Buttler’s team was hardly in the running like this in his 50-time title defense. Brook, whose first winter with England brought back the T20 World Cup, has a diagnosis for this no-show and with it clarity on how things must differ over the next four weeks.
“We are imagining our chances,” Brook said before England prepared for their first Group B match with Scotland on Tuesday at the Three Ws Oval north of Bridgetown. “We have a very good team; a good depth around T20 cricket. We are confident that we can bring it home.”
When asked what needs to change from the over 50 World Championship, the batsman replied: “[we need to] be a bit more relaxed; probably stay a bit more in the moment, as a group and personally. We weren’t in a big room at the time. The way we started wasn’t great either. It was not the best competition to participate in.”
The weather in Barbados is unstable – it’s really the end of the tourist season – but from the outside the prospects for England look much superior. If India lost touch with the rhythms of cricket at the age of over 50, Brook insists that, given its status as the dominant white-ball format, this no longer applies to Twenty20 these days.
On a personal level, this season – with a tour abroad in June – represents a comeback for Brook, who missed the test tour in India, which ended in March because his grandmother Pauline, a big supporter of his cricket, died when he was growing up. At one point, the last three games of that 4-1 loss were goals, but events dictated otherwise.
“Trying to spend as much time as possible with my grandmother was the right choice, and I don’t contrition it for a minute,” he said. “I had a few conversations with [Ben Stokes, the test captain] and he basically said, “No matter what happens, family is the most important thing and you would contrition playing cricket again if something happens.’”
When it comes to cricket, Brook has spent the first significant break of his career in England trying to improve his fitness, and although he was barely in shape before, he looks remarkably slim. Some players inflate themselves for more strength, but Brook, with the natural ability to untie the rope by timing, went the other way to improve other facets of his game.
“Obviously it wasn’t under the right circumstances, but I was just trying to train as hard as possible.by trying to lose a little weight and get a little slimmer,” he said. “To smack in medium order, to run in pairs will be a pretty big thing for my game. And also on the field. I’ve been trying to run faster for the last 12 to 18 months.”
