'No issue with playing spin' - Brook After WI Loss

Harry Brook, the England captain, admitted that his team conceded 15-20 too many runs on the field, as a result of which England were left behind in the contest against West Indies, eventually 30 runs short of the opposition's total at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday (February 11).

"We didn't quite execute well enough with the ball and they probably got 15, 20 too many," Brook said following the loss. "We thought it (197-run target) was chasable, definitely. We obviously planned for dew and it didn't quite get as dewy as we thought, and it didn't quite slide onto the bat as much as we were expecting."

After West Indies piled on 196, courtesy Sherfane Rutherford's blazing 42-ball 76*, England were bundled out for 166. Even as Phil Salt, Jos Buttler and Jacob Bethell made handy contributions early on, the rest of the batters were choked by the West Indian spinners - Akeal Hosein, Roston Chase and Gudakesh Motie, who combined to bag six wickets and keep the momentum with West Indies.

Brook denied there being an issue with playing spin. "I don't think so (that there is an issue with playing spin)," he said. That series against Sri Lanka showed that. I thought we played spin really well out there. They bowled well; they kept themselves in the game the whole time. Like you said, we lost quite a few wickets in clusters, which never really helps.

"We were probably a little bit careful. Chasing nearly 200 is always a big ask and like I said we didn't think - we thought the pitch would get a little bit better and it'd slide onto the bat a bit more and that didn't happen."

It hasn't been a good start to England's campaign in the ongoing T20 World Cup. After nearly being shocked by Nepal in their opening encounter, they have lost to West Indies, and are in a position where they might require to win both their upcoming group games in order to qualify. But Brook hopes, despite the loss on Wednesday, the team will be able to take confidence from the fight they put up.

"We can take a lot of confidence from not only the Nepal game, but the last T20 in Sri Lanka when they were both tight games. We can take a lot of confidence from them and in the depth with the batting that we have as well. We were stood up in the changing room and we still needed 50 off four overs and we still had faith. We can take a lot of confidence going forward. Obviously, it didn't pay off today, but another day it would work."

Meanwhile, Shai Hope, the West Indian skipper, defended his counterpart's decision to bowl after winning the toss. "I actually would have bowled first. Wankhede, it tends to be a chasing venue, especially when the tiny ball comes on a bit better. The dew factor was not there today, but usually you get it pretty wet. It's kind of difficult for the spinners to grip the ball in the second innings especially.

"Maybe (our score) was just around par, but still happy to get something on the board. It is a World Cup game and that in itself could be extra 10-20 runs, so just important for us to make sure we try to maximize as best as we can and then execute with the ball after."