Brook urged to trust his instincts on England captaincy debut

Harry Brook's international career has been progressing smoothly, so much so that even after averaging 30 in a series win, he found himself under scrutiny. Admittedly, Brook is now wary of overanalyzing his every move as he gears up to captain England for the first time at Trent Bridge on Thursday. His approach was put into question during Sri Lanka's recent victory at The Oval, prompting him to focus on staying calm and not getting paralyzed by too much analysis.

Brook made 19 and 3 in the final Test of the English season, having made between 32 and 56 in his first four innings of the series against Sri Lanka. If the scores were underwhelming, it was his manner at the crease that drew most attention: he grew visibly frustrated when Sri Lanka bowled wide outside his off stump, to the extent Michael Vaughan accused him of "taking the mick out of the game".

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This has been a long season for Brook, who was England's only ever-present across both June's T20 World Cup and their six home Tests. He spent the three weeks between the West Indies and Sri Lanka series captaining Northern Superchargers in the Hundred, and will fly to Pakistan for October's Test tour only three days after the fifth and final ODI of the Australia series.

Brook seemed characteristically relaxed on the eve of his England captaincy debut at Trent Bridge, grinning through his pre-match press conference and laughing off the idea that he had ever craved leadership. He conceded that his Test summer had not quite gone to plan, but played down the suggestion that he was mentally drained after an intense season.

"Because I wasn't scoring the runs I wanted to, I probably was [feeling] a little bit [tired]," Brook said. "But if I'd have gone out and got two hundreds against Sri Lanka then I'd have been like, 'I'll just carry on'. But no, not really. I love playing cricket: I want to play as much as I possibly can. I do think breaks are important at certain times, but I was pretty chilled.

"Obviously I didn't do as well as I'd wanted. I want to get a hundred every innings, but it's not going to happen, is it? Professional sport is not easy… I felt like I batted really well against West Indies and then didn't play as well as I wanted to against Sri Lanka, but those things happen. You go away and think about it for a little bit, and hopefully come back stronger in Pakistan."

Harry Brook was in good spirits despite a long, busy season

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Until the Hundred this year - where he oversaw five wins in six completed games - the majority of Brook's captaincy experience came with England Under-19s, whom he led in 11 Youth ODIs, including five at the 2018 World Cup. Since then, he has played 50-over cricket only sporadically. Half of his 30 List A games have been full ODIs, and his record in them is underwhelming: 407 runs at 29.07, with three half-centuries.

He will aim to keep things simple against Australia, batting at No. 4. "I'm just going to go out there and watch the ball as closely as possible," he said. "If you have a few low scores here and there, 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."

Brook is only standing in as captain for Jos Buttler, who was with the squad on Wednesday as he continues his rehabilitation from a calf injury and will return for November's Caribbean tour. "I might pick his brains here and there," Brook said, "but he's said I've got full rein to do whatever I want."

Buttler has challenged Brook to "identify those moments" in the field where he can change the game - something that Buttler himself has struggled with in ODIs. Brook showed signs of that instinct during the Hundred, and said that he would liberate his bowlers to make decisions: "Whatever you feel like doing, just do it. The only bad outcome is you could get hit for a boundary and the next ball could be a dot ball."

This ODI series is one of only three for England before February's Champions Trophy, and the first since Rob Key announced that Brendon McCullum will take over as limited-overs coach as part of a "strategic restructure" of the senior set-up. The implication is that there will be greater convergence between formats, as evidenced by Ben Duckett's promotion to open the batting on Thursday.

Brook said that he has hardly spoken to McCullum, who has instead delegated responsibility to his Test assistant coach Marcus Trescothick. "It's all going to merge into one at some point," Brook predicted. "We want to go out there and entertain the crowd, take the game on, try to take wickets and put the pressure on their bowlers."

And after ending the Test summer on autopilot at The Oval, Brook hopes that this new challenge will prove reinvigorating. "I've only been here for two days, but the way the lads have gone about their business in training just seems so chilled at the minute. We're all looking forward to going out there and having some fun."