Harry Brook does not buy the old idea that England freeze when the ball starts to grip. On the eve of the World Cup semi-final against India in Mumbai, the captain rattled through recent evidence and sounded pretty relaxed about the whole spin question.
“I feel like England always get a bad rap about playing against spin,” he said. “We’ve gone to Sri Lanka and we’ve won six games in a row against a subcontinent side who are very good in their own backyard. We’ve got a lot of confidence playing on turning pitches.”
Those six victories – three in the bilateral warm-ups and three more in the Super Eights – all arrived on slow, sometimes spiteful surfaces in Pallekele and Colombo. England’s batting has hardly been flawless, yet it has been useful often enough, while the spin unit has carried the heavy lifting with the ball.
The raw numbers are hard to argue with. Leg-spinner Adil Rashid leads the side with 11 wickets at 7.83 an over. Left-armer Liam Dawson is close behind on 10 scalps, conceding 7.30, and part-time off-spinner Will Jacks has chipped in with seven more. Toss in Rehan Ahmed’s two wickets from his solitary outing and spin accounts for 30 of England’s 56 dismissals – just over half. Only Pakistan, who spent their whole tournament in Sri Lanka, have claimed more wickets through spin.
“We’ve got some very good spinners as well,” Brook continued. “Our spinners have bowled extremely well in this competition and India will have to tackle that challenge as well.”
India, for once, look slightly unsure of their own slow-bowling options. Varun Chakravarthy has gone at more than ten an over in the Super Eights and the back-up choices have barely had a trundle. England, meanwhile, did lose six wickets to spin when West Indies ambushed them at the same ground, so it is not an entirely one-way street.
“India have always produced very good spinners, and we’ve accepted that before coming into this competition,” Brook said. “Chakravarthy is one of the best bowlers in the world, and I’ll try my best to face him and score as many runs as I can against him.”
If his own batting has been the glue – he sits inside the tournament’s top ten run-scorers – the rest of the order has flickered rather than burned. Jos Buttler, in particular, has copped the loudest criticism, yet Brook is not having any of it. The skipper’s position, he feels, is not up for debate and will not be until the trophy is handed out.
England have not delivered the mythical “perfect game” that coaches like to talk about. Brook is unconcerned. “I don’t think we need a perfect game to win the competition, to be honest,” he said, pointing out that ugly wins still count as wins. With three more to go, the maths is plain enough.
Conditions at the Wankhede should again be dry, the surface possibly a touch firmer than the slow Colombo strip but likely to take turn as the match wears on. England may ponder a second wrist-spinner but are just as likely to keep the same XI that beat Australia three days ago, trusting the extra pace of Mark Wood and the control of Chris Woakes to support the slow bowlers.
Analysts inside the England camp believe the new-ball passage could decide things. Get through Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj – never a given, granted – and the middle overs become fertile ground, with India’s spinners under the pump and the square boundaries enticingly short. Equally, concede an early cluster of wickets and the middle order could be exposed to Ravi Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav at their most mischievous.
For now, Brook’s message is straight: the old stereotype does not stack up, recent history shows England can prosper when the ball is turning, and there is no need to hunt for perfection when progress keeps arriving.
“I feel like England always get a bad rap,” he repeated before heading to training. On Thursday night we will see whether that rap finally changes tune.
