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Harry Brook has said Kolkata’s smog made it ‘a lot harder’ for his team to play India’s spinners in the seven-wicket loss in first T20I.
England white-ball vice-captain Harry Brook has blamed ‘smog’ in Kolkata for making it ‘a lot harder’ to pick India’s spinners in the first T20I of the ongoing five-match series, which the visitors lost by seven wickets. He hopes the air will be ‘cleaner’ in Chennai’s Chepauk where they play the second T20I on Saturday.
India and England played the first match with drastically different tactics. While England picked four frontline pacers and leg-spinner Rashid Khan, India went with just one specialist option in Arshdeep Singh, alongside three spinners.
Varun Chakavarthy and Axar Patel combined for five wickets while leggie Ravi Bishnoi was quite economical. Brook was Chakavarthy’s first of three wickets, bowling him through the gate with a googly the Englishman couldn’t read.
“Chakaravarthy is an exceptionally good bowler, but with the smog the other night, it was a lot harder to pick. Hopefully, the air is a bit clearer here and we can see the ball a bit easier,” Brook said.
The right-hander also admitted his personal shortcomings.
“Facing spin in T20 cricket is probably the hardest thing in the game, especially because I always get out trying to absolutely smack it. Maybe I’ve got to rein in a little bit, but we’ll see.”
“I think I do have a method. It’s just trying to do it consistently and more often. I come in in the middle order, so the first few balls I face are usually off-spin. If I get out early, it’s usually against a spinner, so maybe my stats aren’t as good against spin, but there’s always going to be criticism in some parts,” he added.
Brook has had success in India before, like when he scored an unbeaten century against Chakaravarthy and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2023. However, he has been unable to look at that for inspiration, yet.
“I was going to watch it on the way in (to Friday’s practice session) but my phone wouldn’t work, so I’ll have a look a little bit later,” he noted.
England are planning to double down on the pace-to-win strategy in the second T20I, despite Chepauk being historically a spin-friendly wicket. They have dropped pacer Gus Atkinson, who can bat a bit, for a more out-and-out quick in Brydon Carse, though wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith is in contention, too.
