The missing achievement is a main role in winning a series or major tournament.
Brook’s magnificent century should have been enough for England to win the fifth Test against India at The Oval last year, only for him to throw away his wicket with victory in sight. He failed to make a century in 10 Ashes Tests against Australia and was just a small player in the England team that won the 2022 T20 World Cup.
Maybe his time is coming. Next summer will be the Ashes at home, followed by the 50-over World Cup in southern Africa. Brook will be 28 years old and at the peak of his powers. There is a chance to play a major role in winning back the urn and becoming one of the few British athletes to win a World Cup in any sport.
To do so, he will have to correct the flaws that emerged in England’s one-day cricket during the first two matches of the tri-series in Pakistan.
In the opening match, against Pakistan, misses and poor hitting left them well beaten in a match they could have won.
Against Sri Lanka, England somehow lost from what seemed an impregnable position, their bowling and fielding collapsing as they increasingly realized they might fail to defend a target of 430.
There has been some attenuation. The dew made the ball incredibly slippery, while their attack was weakened by the absence of Jofra Archer on rest and Adil Rashid on the bench.
Nonetheless, the bowling was awful, particularly Sam Curran, who conceded 103 from nine overs to return the worst figures by an England bowler in an ODI. It was a mistake for Brook to continue to rely on the left-armer, while not utilizing the full 10-over allocation of either Josh Tongue or Gus Atkinson.
It was one of the first major missteps of Brook’s captaincy career and the kind of performance that shows England still have a way to go to be considered serious World Cup contenders.
Now England will need to win their next two matches to reach the three-series final, which will be played on October 31, exactly 12 months after Brook’s horror show in Wellington.
England need the kind of turnaround their captain has achieved over the past year
Gn sports
