Harry Brook was the latest name to be selected in England’s 2023 World Cup squad, moving ahead of Jason Roy after being initially left out of the squad. But he could still be the most likely England player to qualify for the 2027 World Cup: Brook will be 28 and have peaked in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The new three-year central contract highlights how integral he is to England’s plans across all formats.
When Brook broke into professional football, he was part of a new generation of English cricketers for whom the 50-over game was firmly at the bottom. This was not a personal preference, but the realities of a saturated program. It is noteworthy that Brook did not play a single 50-over game between May 2019, when he made his one-day international debut, and January this year. Of his 218 professional matches, only 28 were in one-day play.
With a Test average of 62.2 in his first 12 Tests (at a strike rate of 92) and an Indian Premier League centurion and T20 World Cup winner, the middle format of cricket should be an easy choice. But over 50 formats are not just a bridge between other formats; It is also a game with its own rhythms and demands.
How to create an innings? When to attack and when to be content with collecting regular singles? And how to best exploit only four men allowed outside the 30-yard circle – something that never happens in T20, but over 30 in every ODI?
These are questions that require playing in the 50-over format, even for a batsman as brilliant as Brook. Doing well in T20s and Tests is not enough to master the 50-over game: a fact Brook and England learned during the World Cup in India.
“I struggled a bit in this format at the start of my ODI career,” admits Brook. “I couldn’t quite find the tempo of how I really wanted to play.”
Brook’s performance in India (average of 28.2 in six matches, strike rate of 113) showed both why the format suits his talents and that the 50-over game is still in its developing stages. For example, in the opening match against New Zealand, Brook scored 14 off three balls off Rachin Ravindra, but then bowled the top edge of the next ball at square leg.
Whatever suggestions ODI cricket resembles long T20s, the World Cup rewarded classic Test match skills with bat and ball. According to Brook, “You have a lot more time in ODI cricket than you think.”
Brook highlights the two players he learned the most from watching in India. “Virat Kohli is absolutely the best ODI cricketer ever. The way he does it and the way he runs between wickets – no matter how small it is, he is the best in the world, you watch him play his innings. It was ridiculous to watch some of the innings he played.”
Kohli’s remarkable run of 50 in India at a strike rate of 90 in 11 innings – including three centuries – was a testament to how he can score quickly with his technical skill, placement and remarkable fitness. It rarely crosses the borders but crosses the middle.
Heinrich Klaasen, who eviscerated England with a brutal century in Mumbai, was also informative for Brook. “Klaassen takes it deep, waits until he feels like he’s got a bowler in his hand and then takes it down,” says Brook.
“I probably felt like I needed a bit of a break,” says Brook on his return from India, which has extended its schedule non-stop since breaking into the England squad in 2022. “This wears you down. “Obviously we didn’t have great competition and that didn’t help either.”
But after a few weeks off, he was keen to head to the Caribbean. “I feel like there are some things I need to work on, especially in one-day cricket,” says Brook.
It was an innings that delivered on some of his World Cup lessons as England lost by four wickets on Sunday, with Brook’s 71 from 72 balls in the fifth over.
It was a strike befitting the ‘cruising pace’ that has characterized England’s 2015-19 campaign. For example, when batting together in these years, Eoin Morgan and Joe Root were still averaging 60 runs despite having a scoring average of 5.9; They were scoring goals smoothly, without any recklessness. This is exactly the skill England’s batsmen have been missing in India. Unable to pivot quickly, England was pushed to take dangerous risks.
Now England needs to regain the tempo they lost. At number five, controlling the middle overs and setting the innings after the explosive power of the first three, Brook emerges as the pivot in the batting order: a player with the versatility to thrive both when ODIs resemble shortened Test matches and demand T20 skills.
International attacks are already familiar with Brook’s qualities in Test and T20 cricket. The first ODI of England’s new World Cup cycle showed that the 50-over match could also be as feared, with enough time to learn the unique demands of the format.