Bristol: England captain Harry Brooke has set his sights on regaining the top spot in the ICC Men’s T20I rankings after leading his side to a series win over India in Bristol with an unbeaten 79 off just 35 balls.
England won the fourth T20I by nine wickets on Thursday to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series as the hosts clinched the first T20I series against India with a match to play.
A win in Saturday’s final in Southampton would see England replace the reigning world champions at the top spot in the ICC T20I rankings.
Brook also believes it will be a memorable day for English sport as England face Norway in the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup on the same evening.
“The world No.1 and England going to the semi-finals would be fantastic,” Brook said. “We will definitely be watching it (football) closely and will definitely be watching the game.
“We have been told that if we win the next game, we will go to No. 1 in the world and that is definitely a prize we are looking forward to. India are a strong team. They have not done well in the last two years (in this series) but we are very happy with the way we have executed our plans.
Brook believes a 4-0 series sweep would be a remarkable achievement for his team.
“Beating India 4-0 would be a really great series win, if I’m honest, going to the world No. 1 would be even better,” he said.
That’s our main objective: we want to go there and try to convince them again and win. “We have to go to Southampton and try to assess the conditions as best we can – that’s what we’ve done well in this series so far,” he added.
Since Brooke took over as captain last year, England have won 19 out of 22 T20Is. They impressed during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup earlier this year, missing out on a place in the final after failing to chase down 254 against India in the semi-finals.
Brooke admitted that England ended the series with a game that defied his own expectations, but said their performance reflected the progress they had made in white-ball cricket.
“If I’m brutally honest, the white ball team is on a very good track,” he said. “We’ve been playing very good cricket. We’ve adapted well to the terrains and conditions. We had a good World Cup: we fell short of 250 in the chase at Wankhede, which was unbelievable.
He believed England’s recent performances had boosted confidence within the white-ball set-up and the series win helped lift the mood around England cricket, although he insisted the team was focused on finishing the job of the final T20I.
“I think it (the series) might have changed the mood (around English cricket) a little bit, but we still have one more game to play. Hopefully we can go to No. 1 in the world and beat a very strong Indian team,” Brook concluded.