Mumbai: When they started their campaign in the 2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Harry Brook’s England had to live up to a huge record for his country, as the two-time champions have made it to the semifinals in every edition since 2016, when they lost to the West Indies in the final in Kolkata.
England lost to New Zealand in the last-four stage in 2021, beat Pakistan in the final to win the title in 2022 and lost to eventual winner India in the semifinals of the 2024 edition.
By making it to the semifinals of the 2026 edition, Harry Brook’s side has lived up to that reputation. They are now hoping to get past hosts India and become the first team to win the T20 World Cup thrice.
England have navigated past some tight situations — they looked down and out against minnows Nepal in their opening league match and then against Pakistan in the Super 8 stage, before bouncing back to win both the matches and eventually finished atop the standings in Super 8 Group 2.
Skipper Brook said these Houdini acts by his team has given it the confidence to take on India, who are always a strong side at home because of their familiarity with the conditions and the strong support they muster from the stands — in a knockout encounter.
Asked whether winning the decisive moments in tough encounters lends an air of being unbeatable to the team, Brook said it does give his team a lot of confidence.
“No, definitely not unbeatable, but I think it gives us a lot of confidence going into tomorrow as well. We’ve won them tight games, which in World Cups prove to be very important as well. And we’ve got a lot of confidence going into the deeper parts of the game. We’ve won games, like you said, which we probably shouldn’t have won. And it just feels like we’ve never really been out of any game so far, which holds you in good stead in these world competitions,” said Brook in the pre-match press conference ahead of the semifinals.
In Brook’s leadership, England have come up with some strong performances and have emerged as a strong contender to dethrone defending champions India as they are the team with the best record after India. But Brook said he was not aware of such stats, but said his side is confident in its abilities and will go into the semifinal at the Wankhede Stadium with the confidence gained from the calm demeanour they showed while extricating themselves from tricky situations.
“We’ve obviously played some good cricket over the last year or so, and hopefully we can play some more good cricket tomorrow. I do believe that India were the favourites from the start of the competition, as they should be on their home soil, home crowds and knowing the venues better than anyone else. But T20 is such a fickle game, and anything can happen.
“We’re obviously going into the game very confident. We’re playing some good cricket. We haven’t quite played that perfect performance, and I feel like it’s just around the corner. Hopefully it’s tomorrow night, and we go out there, and we just play with freedom, play bravely, and yeah, look to take it to them as much as we can,” said Brook.
On taking over the captaincy a year back, Brook has made some tactical changes by bringing Tom Banton and Liam Dawson back into the squad and sending Will Jacks to bat at No.7. These tactical switches have given the England side more stability, and it also helped that all three are his good friends. Brook said it helps to have close friends playing under him, as it gives him confidence, as he knows they will have his back in tight situations.
“Yeah, obviously when I took over, this was a year away and it felt like it probably needed a little bit of planning and that was slightly part of the planning really to try and get some game time in them guys and then slowly build some confidence up knowing that they were gonna be in the side most of the time and they’ve taken them roles on beautifully. Jacks, for example, has had four matches this World Cup, but he’s been the standout player in the competition, arguably. Dawson’s played a massive role in plenty of games as well. Banton has won us a few games off his own bat. And yeah, it’s just having that confidence, knowing that you are going to be around for a little while, and thankfully it’s got us this far in the competition,” said Brook.
(IANS)
