England run risk by missing final T20 World Cup training to stay cool by the pool

Harry Brook’s team opt for confidence building at hotel before opener with practice a three-hour round trip away

Sitting in the BCCI’s Mumbai headquarters, adjacent to the Wankhede Stadium, three days before the start of England’s World Cup campaign, Harry Brook was asked about captaining a T20 side in its latest, even-more-wild-scoring iteration, against opponents looking to flay sixes with ungodly regularity. “Yeah, you’ve got to stay with a cool head as much as you possibly can,” he said. “You’ve just got to try and be as calm as possible.”

In England’s last World Cup fixture at the Wankhede, in 2023’s 50-over tournament, calm and cool heads were exactly what they were missing. After mystifyingly electing to field against South Africa on a searing afternoon, they effectively melted; Heinrich Klaasen scored a century, England chased 400 and fell 229 short. It is a grisly memory mercifully borne by only a few members of the current squad, which includes only three survivors of that side. Continue reading...