Harry Brook insisted England’s weary all-format players must keep on going despite more disappointment at the hands of South Africa.
White-ball captain Brook and a handful of team-mates, including Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith, have run themselves ragged this summer with a draining Test series followed by a month of fast-paced action in The Hundred.
Now, with barely a chance to catch breath, they are back in action against a high-quality Proteas side and coming up short.
A seven-wicket thrashing at Headingley was followed with a much closer contest at Lord’s, which went all the way to the final ball and teased a super-over finish before the tourists closed out a five-run win.
A third ODI awaits Brook in Southampton on Sunday, followed by three T20s against the same opponents, before a hard-earned rest for the three-match trip to Ireland.
But Brook resisted the suggestion that England should be shielding their leading Test players – specifically a visibly-drained Duckett – ahead of this winter’s Ashes tour of Australia.
“I’m not selecting the Ashes side, that’s up to (Ben) Stokesy and Baz (Brendon McCullum),” he said, referring to England’s Test skipper and head coach.
“We want to try and play our strongest side in every white-ball game. We’ve World Cups coming up – the T20 World Cup this winter and the one-day world cup the following winter.
“It’s easy to say that (we’re tired), but in my eyes that’s just an excuse. We’re good enough and fit enough to be able to keep playing for the time being.
“There’s obviously a bit of a break at the end of this series so it’s one game at a time and try to be fit and raring to go for the rest of this series.”
Brook was clearly upset with England’s limp performance in front of his home crowd in Yorkshire, a game that lasted less than half the allocated overs, but was cheered by an improved showing at HQ.
Presented with a ground record chase of 331, they showed heart to take it to the wire and finish on 325 for nine.
“We felt they were 10 or 15 above par, so it was a very good effort for us to get within one blow of their score. I thought the batting unit did really well,” he said.
“Chasing 6.5 an over from ball one is a tough task but that’s exactly why we’ve picked this side: we’ve a long batting order.”
The downside of England’s selection balance is a weak link in their bowling, with part-timers Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell plundered for 112 runs as they shared 10 overs. Those runs proved decisive in the end.
“It’s not ideal but those two are both highly-skilled bowlers,” said Brook.
“I probably got it wrong on one occasion when I bowled Jacksy from the Pavilion End to the right-handers hitting it down the hill. It was a gamble and the gamble didn’t pay off.”
