Harry Brook admits that Joe Root was never in the frame to make England’s T20 World Cup squad.
The 35-year-old has issued a reminder of his enduring quality with scores of 51, 75 and an unbeaten 111 in the ODI series victory in Sri Lanka.
Root is a master of building an innings on spinning wickets and his form raised the question of whether England might be missing a trick by not taking him to next month’s T20 World Cup – co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
Root himself acknowledged following the series-clinching win in Colombo on Tuesday that he is a “long way off” the T20 squad, having not played for England in that format since 2019.
Asked if Root was ever in contention for the World Cup squad, captain Brook said: “Probably not, no. He’s obviously such a phenomenal player.
“In all conditions he’s done it everywhere. Unfortunately he wasn’t quite in the mix.”
England travel to Pallekele, near Kandy, on Wednesday ahead of a three-match T20 series which begins on Friday, before their T20 World Cup campaign begins in Mumbai on February 8.
The 53-run win in Colombo sealed a 2-1 win and only England’s second victory in their last eight ODI series.
Brook smashed 136 from 66 balls to build on Root’s brilliant 20th ODI century.
The skipper is proud of the way his side responded having lost the series opener, especially off the back of a tough winter with the 4-1 Ashes defeat and their poor ODI form.
“Our heads never go down. We always want to keep on pushing forward. We always want to try and win every game,” Brook added.
“It’s about sticking to your process as well as you can. We spoke a lot about adapting to the surfaces. Today was a great example of that.
“To put on a score like that and then defend it and bowl the side out who are ranked number five in the world, it was an exceptional effort. The lads should be very proud of that performance.
“We obviously haven’t won many series away from home in recent times. It’s nice to get that monkey off the back. That can give us a hell of a lot of confidence going forwards.”
Yorkshire duo Brook and Root shared a sensational stand of 191 to lift England to their match-winning total of 357 for three.
Brook smashed nine sixes in his innings, taking the Sri Lanka attack apart and moving from reaching fifty to his total of 136 in just 26 balls.
He credited a net session with Root on the eve of the match for the way he was able to go after the hosts’ spin attack.
“I had a good net session with Rooty. We were talking about different ways of playing spin and different guards and whatnot,” Brook said.
“I took that into the game. I’m happy that I had the courage to go out there and do what I did in practice.
“It’s just trying to access different parts of the field. But having him stood behind watching means the world and it helps a lot.
“I felt like for a period of time I was trying to deflect too much. As we’ve seen today, I’ve got enough power to clear boundaries.
“It’s just about having that confidence. Looking at the field and realising that it’s not actually as far as you think.”
