Harry Brook believes England can still peak at the right time in the T20 World Cup despite acknowledging they have yet to “clicked” in the tournament’s early stages.
England arrived in India on the back of ODI and T20 series wins in Sri Lanka but were pushed to a last-ball thriller by Nepal before suffering defeat to West Indies.
Already under pressure in Group C, they responded with a five-wicket win over Scotland in Kolkata, chasing 153 despite slipping to 86 for four after losing Phil Salt and Jos Buttler cheaply.
Tom Banton’s unbeaten 63 steadied the innings and guided England home, leaving them needing victory over Italy on Monday at the same venue to reach the Super Eights.
A relieved Brook said: “We haven’t quite made it as easy as we would have liked so far. I don’t know (why), things haven’t seemed to have clicked so far.
“We’ve been in this situation before where we have lost a game early and World Cups aren’t always smooth sailing. You’re never going to just go through all the way without losing a game.
“I think there’s a long way to go in this tournament. We’d rather not start amazing and finish amazing than start amazing and finish bad.
“We haven’t quite played our best cricket yet but we’re in a strong position at the minute. You don’t want to start that too early in competitions like this.”
Brook, who captained Banton at the Under-19 World Cup in 2018, praised the batter’s composure under pressure after he anchored the chase.
“It was awesome. I’m good mates with Bants, so it was good to see him have success on the field.
“He said to me he didn’t want to give them a sniff. He’s obviously matured as a player, the way that he chased that total down almost single-handedly, he played it beautifully.”
England’s final group stage game against Italy is on 16 February at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.