Harry Brook leads England into the Twenty20 World Cup, describing the build-up as ‘horrendous’ from a personal perspective.
Brook, 26, confirmed last week that he lied about being alone when struck by a Wellington bouncer at the end of a Halloween night out at the start of England’s winter itinerary, a misdemeanour that initially resulted in a £30,000 fine and final warning about his conduct from the ECB, but is now part of a wider Cricket Regulator investigation into his actions and those of international team-mates Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue.
‘It has been pretty horrendous, to be honest,’ Brook said, speaking for the first time since the cover-up became public.
‘It’s not been a very nice time of my life. All I do is hit a ball with a bat and that’s what I want to carry on doing for the rest of my career, and that’s all it should be going forward, hopefully.’
Brook is limited in what he can say about the incident given the regulator’s probe, but the off-field saga has ironically coincided with a spike in form that has seen him prosper ‘playing what’s in front of me’, hitting an unbeaten 136 off 66 balls and 36 from just a dozen deliveries in twin white-ball series wins over Sri Lanka.
‘It’s weird, as a professional sportsman, when you get out to the wicket, and you’re a batter, everything just seems to float away, and you don’t even know what’s going on. All you’re focusing on is that cricket ball,’ Brook said.
Captain Harry Brook has described his build-up to the T20 World Cup as ‘pretty horrendous’
His England side open the tournament with a clash against Nepal at the Wankhede Stadium
‘Even when the crowds are massive, sometimes you don’t even realise that there’s any noise when you’re batting, so, luckily, I got into that bubble, and managed to bat fairly well.’
For the opening match of the World Cup – against minnows Nepal at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday – England have selected the in-form Tom Banton ahead of Ben Duckett at No 4 and named Phil Salt at the top of the order following a lingering back issue.
They have also picked Luke Wood ahead of Jamie Overton in a three-man seam attack also including Jofra Archer and Sam Curran.
The make-up of the XI is a stark contrast to the pace-heavy tactics England used here in limited-overs cricket last year when they lost seven of eight matches against India in Brendon McCullum’s first white-ball assignments as head coach.
Wood’s selection is down to a combination of left-armers being successful historically in the Indian Premier League and Mumbai being one of the Indian venues where the new ball swings.
Brook acknowledged that England’s tactical thinking for this tournament had been influenced by reigning world champions India regularly fielding multiple spinners in their line-ups.
England include veterans Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson plus part-timers Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell.
England team: Salt, Buttler (wkt), Bethell, Banton, Brook (capt), Curran, Jacks, Dawson, Archer, Rashid, Wood
