by Harry Brook was the last man selected for England’s 2023 World Cup squad, only making his way in ahead of Jason Roy after initially being left out. And yet he may be the most likely England player to feature at the 2027 World Cup: Brook will be 28, and should be at his peak in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. A central new three-year contract underlines how central he is to England’s plans in all formats.
Emerging in the professional game, Brook was part of a new generation of English cricketers for whom the 50-over game ranked strongly last. This was not due to any personal preference, but the realities of a saturated schedule. Amazingly, from May 2019 to January this year, when he made his one-day international debut, Brook played just one 50-over game. Of his 218 professional matches, only 28 have been in the one-day game.
For a man with a Test average of 62.2 in his first 12 Tests – done at a strike rate of 92 – and a centurion in the Indian Premier League and winner of the T20 World Cup, the middle format of cricket should be an easy fit. But the 50-over format is not just a bridge between the other formats; it is also a game with its own rhythms and strange demands.
How to build innings? When to attack, and when are you happy to collect regular singles? And how best to take advantage of the fact that only four men are allowed outside the 30-yard circle – a situation that never happens in T20, but still exists for 30 overs every ODI?
These are questions that, even for a batsman as great as Brook, require playing the 50-over format. To master the 50-over game, it’s not enough to excel in T20s and Tests: something both Brook and England learned during the World Cup in India.
“I struggled a bit in this format at the beginning of my ODI career,” admits Brook. “Didn’t find the pace I wanted to play, really.”
Brook’s performances in India – an average of 28.2 in six matches, with a strike-rate of 113 – showed why the format suits his gifts well and his 50-over game still resonates. In the opening match against New Zealand, for example, Brook hit 14 off three balls against Rachin Ravindra but then top-edged the next ball at square leg.
Despite suggestions of ODI cricket being like a faded T20, the World Cup rewarded classic Test game skills, both with bat and ball. To Brook, he emphasized, “you have a lot more time in ODI cricket than you think.”
Brook highlights two players he learned the most from watching in India. “Virat Kohli is clearly the greatest ODI cricketer of all time. The way he went under and the way he runs in between the wickets – nothing small he’s just the best in the world, you watch him take his guts. It was ridiculous to watch some of the stories he played.”
Kohli’s extraordinary run of nine scores of 50 – including three centuries – in 11 innings in India, while scoring at a strike rate of 90, was a testament to his ability, technical ability, placement and agility. great, score with haste i. the middle tackles even and rarely scores boundaries.
Heinrich Klaasen, who dismissed England with a brutal century in Mumbai, was also informative for Brook. “Klaassen takes it deep, waits until he feels he has a bowler and then takes them down,” says Brook.
When he returned from India, which added to a hectic schedule since breaking into the England team in 2022, “I probably felt I needed a bit of a break,” says Brook. “It wears you out. Obviously we didn’t have great competition as well, which didn’t help.”
But after a few weeks off, he wanted to go to the Caribbean. “I feel there are a few things I need to work on in one day’s cricket, in particular,” says Brook.
Although England lost by four wickets on Sunday, Brook’s 71 from 72 balls at number five innings made good on some of his World Cup lessons.
It was an innings in keeping with the ‘cruising pace’ that was England’s hallmark from 2015-19. Batting together in these years, for example, Eoin Morgan and Joe Root scored at 5.9 an over and still averaged 60 – scoring with ease at run-a-ball without any recklessness. That was exactly the skill that England’s batsmen wasted in India. Unable to rotate briskly, England were forced to take dangerous risks.
Now, England need to regain this lost pace. At number five, controlling the middle order following the explosion of the top three and setting the engines, Brook is seen as the linchpin in the batting order: a player with the versatility to do both when ODIs are like shortened test matches or when they require 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 – with plenty of time to learn the unique demands of the format – suggested he could be just as feared in the 50-over game too.
