England’s performance in the group stage was undoubtedly unconvincing.
They were taken to the final ball by Nepal and lost to West Indies in Mumbai, before edging to wins over Italy and Scotland in Kolkata.
Batters got in and got out – Tom Banton’s 63 not out the only real match-defining score. Even the ever-reliable Adil Rashid has gone for nine runs per over or more in three of the four games.
It means England have shown little to suggest they can threaten late into the tournament to this point.
Without improvement this will likely be a fourth underwhelming major tournament in a row since they won the T20 World Cup in 2022.
But Brook’s comments also reflect some of the difficulties faced by the major nations at this World Cup – a tournament in which no team has built an entirely compelling case to suggest they will be champions.
Players from the lower-ranked teams expressed their keenness to perform, not just to cause an upset but also to prove they are deserving of the greater opportunities they so desperately seek.
The Test-playing sides, in contrast, had everything to lose. Just ask Mitchell Marsh when he gets off his flight to back to Australia on Saturday.
And for all their struggles to finish matches with ease, England were also ahead in all three games against their lower-ranked opponents.
Nepal’s chase looked to have stalled, Scotland were 127-8 and Italy 1-2 in the first over of their chase.
Most former England captains would not admit it, and maybe Brook has shown he would, but it would only be human to relax in those situations.
Most of all, however, England are hoping familiarity brings an upturn in fortunes.
They returned to Sri Lanka on Tuesday, first spending two nights in Colombo before taking the winding drive to Pallekele.
Colombo was where Brook stood in front of his team-mates in late January and apologised for his late-night antics in Wellington and the subsequent fallout – an attempt to draw a line under the Ashes defeat.
Pallekele was where England won all three T20s against the very same team they now face.
England said they were badly prepared for the Ashes and now admit to being underprepared for this group stage. For the next task they could hardly have had better preparation.
“It’s just about reading the pitch and the conditions as quickly as possible and communication’s key,” said Brook, when asked what he learned from beating Sri Lanka.
“We obviously had that last game where we only got 130, but that ended up being a winning score.
“You never quite know what’s going to happen with the pitch and until you end up playing on it.”
