England’s match against Sri Lanka on Sunday is the first of two Super Eight fixtures in Pallekele, with a game against Pakistan to come on Tuesday night. Brook was pleased to be in slightly familiar surrounds, as his team set themselves up for a few days in Pallekele.
“We can take a lot of confidence having played here and experienced this surface and this ground,” Brook said the day before England’s first Super Eight match. “We had a very good series against them here, so we can hopefully take that experience and use it in the game tomorrow.”
“Some of their batters are batting really well,” he said. “So hopefully we can get a few wickets in the powerplay. And Nissanka is on a bit of a heater at the minute, so it would be ideal if we can get him out early.”
Since that trouncing of Sri Lanka, however, England’s progress through the group stage of the World Cup has been shaky. They were one hit away from being defeated by Nepal, lost comfortably to West Indies, and required lower order contributions from the likes of Will Jacks to overcome Italy and Scotland. Brook chose to focus on England’s resilience.
“I think winning them tight games as well just shows the belief and the unity that we have to be able to get through them games, albeit not against the strongest opponents,” Brook said. “But we’ve still managed to find ourselves in sticky situations and got out of them with some exceptional performances in there from lads lower down the order.”
There may be rain around on Sunday, with Sri Lanka’s meteorological department having issued a heavy rain warning for the central province (in which the ground is situated), for Saturday. The rain may clear by Sunday, but Brook thinks even a shortened game won’t change England’s ambitions. He had said his batters had been “too careful” earlier in the tournament, and wants them to attack, whatever the game’s duration.
“I want us to go hell for leather in 20 overs anyway and go out there and really take it to the opposition with the bat and look to put them under pressure. So, there’s not really, not too much changes there.
“With the no carrying over of points or anything like that into the Super Eights, it’s a completely fresh start and we can see it like that as well. I feel like we can probably be a bit more brave in certain situations.”
