England captain Harry Brook says team is confident facing India at Wankhede Stadium, having won six straight games in Sri Lanka. Despite acknowledging past struggles against Varun Chakravarthy, Brook highlights England's strong spin options and readiness for a tough subcontinent pitch battle.
Mumbai: England had a major scare against Nepal and also lost to the West Indies at Wankhede Stadium before qualifying for the Super Eight stage. They then played all three of their Super Eight matches in Sri Lanka and won each of them.
The Harry Brook-led side defended a low-scoring contest against hosts Sri Lanka before Brook's masterclass guided them to victory against Pakistan. Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed then held their nerve to pull off a thrilling win against New Zealand.
"The games that we have won have been nowhere near perfect and we've still managed to win convincingly in some of them and in tight situations in others," Brook said at the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
"We're obviously going into the game very confident. We're playing some good cricket but we haven't quite produced that perfect performance yet, and I feel like it's just around the corner. Hopefully it comes tomorrow night and we go out there, play with freedom, play brave and look to take the game to them as much as we can," Brook added.
The England skipper has been dismissed by Varun Chakravarthy several times in the past and is aware of the challenge the Indian spinners could pose on a dry Wankhede pitch.
"We've gone to Sri Lanka and won six games in a row against a subcontinent side who are very good in their own backyard. 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," he said.
Brook also warned India that England possess strong spin options of their own in Adil Rashid, Will Jacks and Liam Dawson.
"We've got some very good spinners as well. Our spinners have bowled extremely well throughout this competition and they've got to try and tackle that challenge as well," Brook said.