Harry Brook has revealed the one area that Kevin Pietersen has been focussing on during his time working with the England white-ball side and the key lesson he has taken away.
Pietersen was surprisingly handed a role as specialist mentor for England’s ODI and T20 teams earlier this month, lasting until next autumn’s Cricket World Cup in southern Africa.
The outspoken 46-year-old was born in South Africa, and will bring valuable knowledge of that environment ahead of the World Cup, but became perhaps England’s greatest white-ball batter of all time – scoring almost 4,500 ODI runs at an average of better that 40 and also accruing the highest average of any batter to more than 1,000 runs for England in T20 internationals, with a remarkable strike rate of more than 140.
He was in camp as England hammered Sri Lanka 3-0 in the recent T20 series and will also be on hand for the three-match ODI set against the same opponents starting on Tuesday.
England skipper Brook says the team have enjoyed having the cricketing legend about and has discussed the main tips offered by Pietersen.
“KP has been very good,” Brook said in a pre-match press conference. “He’s enjoying the role, he’s enjoying himself.
“He’s been good to have around, little chats here and there. Away from the game, sat having a coffee and a chat about how he sees the game and how he thinks it should be played.
“He was a hero to many of us growing up, so it’s good to have a man of his calibre in our side.”
On the specifics of the masterclass, Brook added: “A lot of it was about picking the length of spin. That is key to facing spin and being able to rotate strike as well as possible.
“In ODI cricket that’s an area we probably need to improve as a side. It can make a massive difference to winning games of cricket.
“He [Pietersen] was a hell of a player against spin, alongside [Joe] Root and [Marcus] Trescothick. They were very good players at playing spin, so it’s about picking their brains and asking them what worked for them and putting that into your game.”
While Brook is yet to be trusted with Test captaincy, as Joe Root has reprised the role under new coach Stephen Fleming following Ben Stokes’ retirement, the 27-year-old seems to be thriving with the responsibility in the white-ball game.
England’s white-ball head coach Brendon McCullum hasn’t been shy in praising his skipper, while Stokes described him as an “absolute freak” after a brilliant 42-ball century in one of the T20s against Sri Lanka and said he doesn’t “even think the genius of KP (Kevin Pietersen) could come close to what Harry Brook has talent-wise.”
Asked to comment on Stokes’ glowing assessment, Brook said: “They are his opinions. I’m just trying to stay in the moment and in the present as much as possible.
|It’s good to have KP to work alongside and pick his brains. There are plenty of good players in the squad to chat to about cricket, different surfaces, and playing different styles of bowlers. I’m trying to learn as much as I possibly can.”
Brook is also convinced that England will be able to build on their 3-0 shellacking of Sri Lanka in the T20 series when they re-take the field in the slightly longer version of white-ball cricket.
“We can take a hell of a lot of confidence from being unbeaten in the T20s,” Brook explained. “Going into this ODI series we want more of the same. We’re trying to play a higher-octane style of cricket and put them [the opposition] under pressure with bat and ball.
“We want to be one of the fittest sides in the world. To do that, we’ve got to work hard on and off the field. We are trending in the right direction. There are a few touches here and there which we can improve.”
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