Harry Brook backs ‘awesome’ England to find a way past India into T20 World Cup final

England have abandoned their pursuit of perfection as they plot a path to victory over India and a place in the T20 World Cup final

England have abandoned their pursuit of perfection as they plot a path to victory over India and a place in the T20 World Cup final but Harry Brook remains confident they can beat any opponent. “This team is awesome,” the captain said. “We’re never out of the game.”

England have stuttered and stumbled their way to last four, impressive at times but always flawed. As Brook said after victory over Pakistan, when his own performance with the bat got close to flawless: “We haven’t had the perfect game yet, and hopefully that’s just round the corner.” Or as Sam Curran said on Tuesday: “All of us will be hoping that the perfect game comes Thursday.”

However, as they prepare for their toughest test yet at a packed Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday, their ambition has been downgraded. “I don’t believe we need a perfect game to win the competition, to be honest,” said Brook.

“The games we have won have been nowhere near perfect and we’ve still managed to get the wins – convincingly in some of them and tight in the others. It’s just the unity we’ve had to be able to get across the line, the belief that everybody’s shown, and the calmness we’ve had.

“We’re definitely not unbeatable but it gives us a lot of confidence going into tomorrow. We’ve won those tight games. We’ve won games which we probably shouldn’t have won. We don’t feel like we’re ever out of the game. All it takes is for one of the top order to make a decent score, or one of our five or six bowlers to have an amazing day out, and all of a sudden you’re walking away with a victory.”

India have also failed to hit the impossibly high standards expected of them. The local broadcaster has at least stopped wondering when they would score over 300 – they have exceeded 200 only twice, against Zimbabwe and Namibia, while in losing to South Africa they were bowled out for just 111, their third lowest score in a completed innings at any T20 World Cup.

England emerged from the Super Eights having taken the most wickets at the tournament while also scoring more runs than any of the other semi-finalists; India have dropped the most catches. Meanwhile India’s bowling coach, the former South Africa international Morne Morkel, admitted that “at times we’re guilty if we’re honest of giving away maybe 15-20 runs in the field”.

“We haven’t really spoken about the perfect game,” Morkel said. “Hopefully now in the last two games we can put that special performance in. Unfortunately we all know how the game goes, that success is never guaranteed.”

There may be no guarantees, but India’s attempts to maximise the chances have included all the standard preparations and a few less usual ones: they rescheduled their session on Tuesday to ensure they would not be training during a lunar eclipse, considered by local superstition to be a time of increased negative energy.

Morkel said India would “go in with a mindset that it’s going to be a high-scoring game” but analysis of the playing surface has been hampered by the high temperatures in Mumbai, which forced the groundstaff to apply liberal water a day out. “It’s a lot hotter all of a sudden, so allowing the wicket not to dry out is going to be key for it to play well,” the South African said. “It’s quite soft, so it’s hard to get an accurate read on it. But are we expecting it to be a good wicket? We’re preparing ourselves for tough conditions, and then from there we will assess.”

While England have not confirmed their team, Jamie Overton is likely to return to provide a third seam-bowling option, with Adil Rashid, Liam Dawson, Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell all available to bowl spin as required.

“We get a lot of stats, a lot of videos, we can see where they’re trying to hit the ball, we know the wagon wheels and whatnot, we know the matchups,” Brook said of his bowling plans. “They’re a very good side and they can adapt to different bowlers but my job is to try and make it as uncomfortable for them as possible.”

England are likely to find the atmosphere uncomfortable enough, let alone India’s star-stuffed side. “We wouldn’t say we’re underdogs,” said Brook. “We’ve got this far now, and it would be stupid of us to not be confident. They are probably the favourites but we’re going to go out there and give it a hell of a crack.”