England captain Harry Brook believes his team will go all out for a clean sweep to unseat the current world champions from the top of the ICC T20I rankings, adding that he “probably didn’t expect” the series against India to be that lopsided.
With an attacking unbeaten 79 off 35 balls, Brook led from the front as England chased a modest 158/7. He and Phil Salt (59 not out off 42) shared an unbeaten 146-run partnership that propelled England to a comfortable nine-wicket victory in the fourth Twenty20 International on Thursday, giving them an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
England will dethrone world champions India from the top spot if they win the final Twenty20 International in Southampton on Saturday.
“To go (to) world No.1 and England going to the semis, that would be pretty cool,” PTI quoted Brook as saying after Thursday’s match.
“We’ve been told if we win the next game, we go to world No.1 and that’s definitely a prize that we’re eyeing up. India are a strong side. They probably haven’t been as good (in this series) as they have been over the last couple of years, but we’re really happy with the way that we’ve executed our plans.
“To beat India 4-0 would be a pretty special series win, if I’m being honest, and to go No. 1 in the world would be even better,” he added.
Although Brook “didn’t expect” such an easy victory against India in the current series, he claimed that the current outcomes fairly represent England’s development in the game’s shorter formats.
“The white-ball side’s been on a really good path, if I’m being brutally honest. We’ve been playing extremely good cricket. We’ve been adapting to the surfaces and conditions really well. We had a good World Cup: we just fell just short of 250 in a chase at the Wankhede, which is incredible,” he said.
“I think it (this series) might have changed the mood (around English cricket) a little bit, but we’ve still got one more game to play. Hopefully, we can go to world No. 1 and beat a very strong Indian side.”
