Richly talented but much maligned, England captain Harry Brook finally achieved redemption at Pallekele stadium in Kandy after a torrid few months - and came of age as a leader.
His match-winning century against Pakistan on Tuesday will go down as the finest innings of the 27-year-old’s white-ball career because it single-handedly took his side into a fifth successive T20 World Cup semi-final.
Facing a tricky chase of 165 against Pakistan at the Pallekele stadium in Kandy, England could have been in dire straits when they lost Phil Salt first ball of the innings.
But Brooks, who normally bats at number five, strode to the wicket first drop in a massive statement of intent that said “leave it to me, lads”. Before the tournament there had been calls for Brook’s resignation after he had to apologise for a Halloween incident on the white-ball tour of New Zealand, where he was punched by a nightclub bouncer - in his own words “a terrible mistake”.
On the eve of the T20 World Cup Brook admitted lying about being on his own that night to protect his teammates at the time. All this had emerged after an Ashes debacle where Brook failed to score a century and was castigated in the English press - and mocked in Australia - for throwing his wicket away with reckless shots time and again.
“It’s probably been the hardest winter of my life to be honest,” Brook told reporters after the match.
“There’s been a lot of stuff behind the scenes. It’s just nice to see some rewards from my hard work away from the ground.”
Brook was more modest, saying his one-day international century against Sri Lanka last month had been better.
“I actually think I preferred the Sri Lanka ODI to be honest,” said Brook.
But that was in a bilateral series; this one was in a World Cup match.
“It’s certainly up there in the context of the game and the situation that we found ourselves.”
