"I didn't even know that to be honest. That's news to me," said Harry Brook, sporting a smile sparked by astonishment.
And what caused the astonishment? A statistic.
The Quint informed Harry Brook that ever since he assumed England's T20I captaincy, only one team — among the ones competing at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 — has had a better win percentage than the number 1 ranked T20I team in the world, India. That team happens to be the one he leads — England.
Brooks was not aware of the statistic, and not that one would expect him to be, either. What he would know, though, is that he was led his team to a lot of victories. 16 in the last 20, to be precise, with a win percentage of 80%.
Not all of those victories have been convincing. England have often looked scrappy, but they have found a way to win more often than not. Prior to the commencement of this competition, Will Jacks told The Quint that India will be the team to be.
Yet, considering their statistics, should England not be spoken about in that same vein?
Brook contends — India remain the favourites, but anything can happen in T20 cricket.
We have obviously played some good cricket over the last year or so and Hopefully we can play some more good cricket tomorrow. I do believe that India were the favourites from the start of the competitions, as they should be on their home soil, home crowds and knowing the venues better than anyone else. But T20 is such a fickle game and anything can happen.Harry Brook
Had it not been for an excellent last over from Sam Curran, England would have lost to Nepal. Had it not been for an incredible century from Harry Brook, England would have lost to Pakistan. The Three Lions' victories have nowhere near been perfect, but Brook believes his team does not need perfect wins.
I don't believe that we need a perfect game to win the competition, to be honest. The games that we have won have been nowhere near perfect, and we still managed to get the wins convincingly in some of them and then tighten the other games. But it's just the unity that we've had to be able to get across the line, the belief that everybody's shown throughout them games and the calmness that we've had when the bowlers have been stuck, stood at the top of the mark or, for example, the way that Jacks and Rehan played it the other night (against New Zealand), they were extremely calm and to get us over the line, needing 40 off the last three overs was awesome.Harry Brook
Elaborating on the close wins, Brook added:
We don't feel like we're ever out of a game. All it takes is one of the top seven to get a decent score or one of our five or six bowlers to have an amazing day out there. And all of a sudden you're walking away with a victory and that's what we've done so well so far. Everybody's kind of chipped in that game against New Zealand, everybody had a part to play whether that's back ball or in the field so it's definitely so far been mainly team performances but I feel like there's a big individual performance to come soon.Harry Brook
England Have Got a Bad Reputation About Playing Spin: Jos Buttler
The semi-final tie against India will be played on the central wicket, wherein England were handed a 30-run defeat by the West Indies. In that particular encounter, Brooks' batters had no answers for spinners Gudakesh Motie and Roston Chase.
Considering India will have the world number 1 bowler in their ranks — Varun Chakravarthy, a leg-spinner — will England be able to tackle India's bowling attack? Brook is of the opinion that England have unnecessarily gotten a bad reputation against spin.
I feel like England always get a bad reputation about playing against spin. We have gone to Sri Lanka and we've won six games in a row against the subcontinent side who are very good in their own backyard and we've got a lot of confidence playing on turning pitches. Chakravarthy is one of the best bowlers in the world and I'll try my best to face him and score as many runs as I can against him.Harry Brook
Moreover, he was quick to point out that like India, England too have a few decent spinners in their squad.
I feel like England always get a bad reputation about playing against spin. We have gone to Sri Lanka and we've won six games in a row against the subcontinent side who are very good in their own backyard and we've got a lot of confidence playing on turning pitches. Chakravarthy is one of the best bowlers in the world and I'll try my best to face him and score as many runs as I can against him.Harry Brook