Harry Brook expecting England approach to merge across all formats

Harry Brook suspects England’s approach will “merge into one” when Brendon McCullum unifies the head coach roles.

With McCullum not combining Test and white-ball duties until January and Jos Buttler injured, Brook and Marcus Trescothick form a caretaker captain-head coach alliance for an ODI reboot against Australia.

Trescothick, though, is one of McCullum’s assistants with the Test team, with Brook an instrumental batter in a ‘Bazball’ revolution that has seen England win 19 from 29 matches under the New Zealander.

While Brook has been left to his own devices as he prepares to skipper England for the first time in Thursday’s first ODI at Trent Bridge, the Yorkshireman knows what is expected of him by McCullum.

“I think it’s all going to merge into one at some point,” Brook said. “It’s all going to be played fairly similar.

“We’re going to have the same principles or however we want to go about playing the game, trying to put that forward to the team already before Baz takes over.

“I haven’t spoken to him much, he’s kind of left it up to me and Tres, but me and Tres are both on the same page and a pretty similar page to Baz. Whatever you feel like doing, just do it.

“We want to go out there, be entertaining, entertain the crowd, take the game on, try to take wickets and put the pressure on their bowlers. In the field, try to influence the game as much as you can.”

Brook did not reveal England’s XI, confirming only he will bat at four and Jofra Archer will be unleashed in his first ODI since March 6 last year as part of his carefully managed comeback.

Archer has been on a steady diet of T20s since a return from his latest elbow injury and the aim is to have the fast bowler available to play Test cricket again before the 2025-26 Ashes in Australia.

“(I’ve had) no instructions, I think he’s allowed to bowl his full 10 (overs). Just use him as normal,” Brook said.

The five-match series against Australia is England’s first ODI assignment in nine months and the hosts are light on experience, with three players uncapped and five others having fewer than 10 appearances.

Brook himself has only been capped 15 times in ODIs, a sign of England’s changing priorities as well as their past commitment to the old guard that influenced their seminal 2019 World Cup win.

Brook was one of the few England players aged under 30 last year in a deflating 50-over World Cup defence in India, where he admitted he was still “trying to figure out” the ODI format.

The 25-year-old was also criticised at the end of the Test summer by former England captains Michael Vaughan and Sir Alastair Cook amid some loose strokeplay in the loss to Sri Lanka at the Kia Oval.

“I want to get a hundred every innings,” Brook said. “But it’s not going to happen, is it? Professional sport is not easy and they call it Test cricket for a reason. It is a bloody tough test.

“If you have a few low scores, you start thinking about different things and your technique and whatever. I’m just going to go out there, watch the ball as closely as I can and play on instinct.”

While Brook leads a callow England side, Australia could call upon nine players who featured in the triumphant 2023 World Cup final, with David Warner (retired) and Pat Cummins (rested) the absentees.

Brook, though, has warned against any of his side looking to strike a psychological blow in these five matches in the space of 11 days ahead of the Ashes Down Under in just over a year’s time.

“That’s a long way away yet,” he added. “Personally, I’m just going to try and concentrate on each game and I’d probably urge everybody else to try and do that as well.”