England vs India has grown into quite the bad-tempered affair, with three Tests down and the hosts leading the series 2-1 after an extremely heated atmosphere at Lord’s
Harry Brook has warned India the gloves are off and England will stick up for each other again at Old Trafford, saying: “You don’t always have to be nice.”
Good-natured contests at Headingley and Edgbaston evaporated in a heated atmosphere at Lord’s, where England’s gripping 22-run win to go 2-1 up in the series was fuelled by growing animosity. When the fourth Rothesay Test opens on Wednesday Brook says there will be more tension and tetchiness – and he insists India started it.
England were piqued when openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett were picketed by a posse, with Indian captain Shubman Gill at the forefront, in a time-wasting row at Lord’s, and Brook ringleader of a dressing room summit where they concluded: “We’re not standing for that.”
Mohammed Siraj was later fined 15 per cent of his match fee for giving Duckett a voluble send-off, pumped-up Jofra Archer returned the compliment after scattering Rishabh Pant’s stumps and Brydon Carse and Ravindra Jadeja were involved in a mid-pitch collision.
Brook insists England’s aggression did not cross a line, and he was among the players who were gracious in their commiserations with the distraught Jadeja and Siraj when India’s last pair fell agonisingly short of a sensational win. But the blue touchpaper has been lit – and England’s white-ball captain even admitted the fiery antagonism was “good fun.”
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As Hampshire spinner Liam Dawson was drafted into the England XI to replace the injured Shoaib Bashir, Brook was unrepentant about the change of atmosphere.
He said: ”I’ve had a lot of compliments. Everybody said it was awesome to watch. It was good fun – I have to admit, it was tiring but it made fielding a lot more enjoyable.
“I think it put them under a little bit more pressure. The opportunity that arose for us to not be the nice guys was because of what they did (to Crawley and Duckett). We just thought, ‘We’re not standing for that’.
“We had a conversation and said, ‘It’s time to not be those nice guys that we have been before’. You don’t always have to be nice. It was good fun, but we were doing it within the spirit of the game.
“We weren’t going out there effing and jeffing at them and being nasty people. We were just going about it in the right manner.”
Asked if England will season the pot with even more spice as they chase a series-clinching win, Brook replied: “God knows. We’ll see whether it happens again and whether it works.
“We were just putting them under more pressure. Baz (coach Brendon McCullum) actually said a few days before that we are too nice sometimes, and I brought it up the night before the last day.
“I said, ‘Baz said we’re too nice, I think tomorrow is a perfect opportunity to really get stuck into them’.”
For the second time in eight months, Brook was knocked off the No.1 spot in the Test batters rankings by Yorkshire team-mate Joe Root at Lord’s.
He said: “Everybody wants to be number one (in the world ), don’t they? Joe is a phenomenal player. I’m not in the same league as him. In my opinion, he’s the best Test batter of all time. So I’ll let him have that one for now.”
India firebrand Siraj, whose in-your-face send-off for Duckett ended with the pair brushing shoulders, expects more needle, warning: “Yes, (we will see more of it). I’m thinking what we need, what a player needs is sledging.”
New ball demon Jasprit Bumrah and Pant, who damaged a finger keeping wicket at Lord’s, are both expected to be declared fit by India.