England are all set to take on India in the T20 World Cup semifinal at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday. Ahead of that, England captain Harry Brook said on Wednesday, stating that they do not need a “perfect game” to go all the way in the tournament as well.
“No, I don’t believe that we need a perfect game to win the competition, to be honest,” Harry Brook replied when he was asked if England would need that flawless performance to beat Team India as well.
“The games that we have won have been nowhere near perfect and we’ve still managed to get the wins – convincingly in some of them and then tight in the others. But it’s just the unity that we’ve had to be able to get across the line, the belief that everybody’s shown throughout the games, and the calmness that we’ve had when the bowlers have stood at the top of their mark,” he further added.
Harry Brook also said that playing a T20 World Cup semi-final against India was a “dream come true” for many England players as well.
“It’s up there for sure. It’s a dream come true for most of us to play in a World Cup semifinal against the home nation on a very iconic ground, so we’re all really looking forward to it. We’re obviously going into the game very confident. We’re playing some good cricket. We haven’t quite played that perfect performance yet, and I feel like it’s just around the corner. Hopefully, it’s tomorrow (Thursday) night and we go out there and just play with freedom, play brave, and look to take it to them as much as we can,” he shared.
“We don’t feel like we’re ever out of a game” – Harry Brook
Harry Brook did not bother much about the poor form of former captain and opening batter Jos Buttler, who has had a poor run in the tournament, scoring just 62 runs in seven matches at 8.85 as well.
“You don’t have to talk to him too much; leaving him alone is probably the best thing to do. He’s been a powerhouse of a cricketer for many years, as we’ve all seen. I’ve been asked this question thousands of times now. I just think there should be no reason to question why he’s in the team,” Harry Brook 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. (Varun) 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. We’ve got some very good spinners as well. Our spinners have bowled extremely well throughout this competition, and they’ve (India) got to try and tackle that challenge as well,” Harry Brook again added.
However, he hoped for a big individual performance too, saying that there has not been a single match in the competition so far where his team has been completely outplayed.
“We don’t feel like we’re ever out of a game. All it takes is one of the top seven to get a decent score, or one of our five or six bowlers to have an amazing day out there, and all of a sudden you’re walking away with a victory. That’s what we’ve done so well so far. Everybody’s kind of chipped in… that game against New Zealand – everybody had a part to play, whether with bat, ball or in the field. It’s definitely, so far, been mainly team performances. But I feel like there’s a big individual performance to come,” Harry Brook concluded.
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