England come up short against Sri Lanka in opening warm-up game for T20 World Cup
HARRY BROOK said it was “lovely to get back to the day job” after recent off-field controversies and took the positives from England’s defeat in the first ODI against Sri Lanka.
Half-centuries from Ben Duckett and Yorkshire’s Joe Root appeared to have England well placed in their chase of 272 under lights but the tourists slipped from 129-1 to 165-6.
Kusal Mendis’ unbeaten 93 helped Sri Lanka set a testing target and their raft of spinners put the brakes on England, who were ultimately beaten by 19 runs.
Yorkshire’s Brook admitted on the eve of the match he feels lucky to still be England captain after a nightclub altercation with a bouncer in New Zealand in October.
The story came to light at the end of a troubled Ashes series – a 4-1 defeat dogged by off-field issues – and just two weeks on England were back in action as they begin preparations for next month’s T20 World Cup.
“Lovely to get back to the day job,” Brook said. “Unfortunately we lost the game but there’s still a lot of positives to take from today.
“With the batting power we have, it only took us to get off to a flyer for us to break the back of that chase. On another day, we knock that off three down.
“The pitch got a little bit more extreme, the turn and lack of bounce, it was proving very difficult to start as a batter out there.
“Ducky and Rooty made it look fairly easy when they were set and going but they both came off and said it was hard to start on there, just getting used to the turn, bounce and sometimes the lack of spin when it just skids through.
“That’s something we’ve got to look at as a batting unit and hopefully we can take some positives forward into the next couple of games.”
Brook’s Yorkshire team-mate Adil Rashid was, as so often, the star of England’s attack with 3-44 but England will rue allowing Sri Lanka to hit 80 from the final 10 overs – including 23 from Jamie Overton’s final over.
Sri Lanka’s total had been bettered only once in the last nine ODIs at this ground.
Opener Zak Crawley’s return to the ODI team for the first time since December 2023 did not go to plan as he flashed at a wide ball and edged behind for six – a sight eerily familiar to his Test struggles.
Root and Duckett had England on top but Jeffrey Vandersay and Dhananjaya De Silva removed the pair, before ugly stumpings for Brook and Bethell sucked the heart out of England’s chase.
Lower-order fireworks from Rehan Ahmed (27) and Overton (34) caused some Sri Lankan nerves but England were ultimately bowled out with four balls to spare.
This series is not just about T20 World Cup preparation. England could do with some victories to boost their ODI ranking – currently eighth, raising the embarrassing prospect of missing out on automatic qualification for the 2027 World Cup.
“That’s been spoken about a hell of a lot in the last year or so, but we just want to try and be in the moment as much as possible,” added Brook. “Sri Lanka have just outperformed us there.”