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Harry Brook's patience appears to be wearing thin ahead of Saturday’s dead rubber against New Zealand at the Cake Tin.
Back-to-back defeats here made it 23 in 34 in one-day internationals for England, with the batting a particular source of frustration for white-ball captain Brook after his team twice folded inside 36 overs in a matter of days.
Brook’s affable style has been a feature of his six months wearing the armband, so the first signs of a shift in mood following the five-wicket loss in Hamilton on Wednesday stood out.
‘You go round every single player there and you think “bloody hell, there aren't many teams that they don't get into in the world”. We've got five, six, maybe seven batters who would get into almost every team in the world,’ he said.
‘So yeah, they just haven't performed well enough. It's disappointing for the fans, who want to watch us. We entertain people, because they know that we play such an exciting brand of cricket.
‘It was only a couple of games ago against South Africa in the summer when we got 400, so we're not a million miles away.
Harry Brook cut a frustrated figure after England's latest ODI defeat in New Zealand
'It's just about a couple of scores here and there and then we nail it down and hopefully we do find that template, which we can keep going forward with.’
Brook refused to blame losing the toss or the chilly and wet conditions here for trailing 2-0, saying: ‘Everybody in that batting line-up is good enough to be able to face a swinging and seaming ball.
'In my eyes, that's just an excuse, and they're good enough to be able to cope with that and score runs against that.’
While the main focus this winter is inevitably on an Ashes series contested by Test cricket’s top two ranked teams, England’s lowly standing in the 50-over game could become problematic.
They are currently in eighth place, on 86 points, seven ahead of West Indies and 10 better off than Bangladesh.
Teams ranked 10th or lower at the cut-off point in March 2027 will be forced to enter a qualifying competition to participate in the next World Cup, and England’s ODI assignments over the next 13 months include home and away series against fourth-placed Sri Lanka, a visit from India and a white-ball tour of Australia.
The one major positive Brook took from defeat at Seddon Park in midweek was Jofra Archer raising his tally to 14 wickets in four limited-overs internationals with figures of 10-4-23-3.
Jofra Archer impressed with the ball in one major positive Brook took from defeat
‘Those were promising signs, weren't they? He's gone back to back five-over spells there after just getting off the plane a few days ago, so hopefully he recovers alright. He ran in for me. That's all I asked from him and he was bowling wheels,’ said Brook.
New Zealand batsman Rachin Ravindra agreed, saying: ‘It’s unassuming pace, ambling in and the height he delivers it from certainly makes it a hell of a challenge.
‘Especially with the amount of bounce and swing and nip he was getting, and part of me as a cricket fan is excited to see how he goes in Oz.’
