Brook calls for braver England batting as openers search for spark

"I feel like we've been slightly too careful with the bat and we can really look to put them under a little bit more pressure, especially with the batting depth that we got," said England captain Harry Brook ahead of their Super 8s game against Sri Lanka.

Although England have progressed beyond the first round of the 2026 T20 World Cup, their methods, particularly with the bat, have been anything but fluent. And the issue begins right at the top of the order.

England's top four have a collective strike rate of 141.6, placing them ninth among the 20 teams in the tournament. Even more concerning has been the output from the openers. Jos Buttler and Phil Salt have managed only 114 runs between them so far, the third-lowest combined tally for openers among all teams in the competition, at an average of 14.3. Buttler's highest score is 26, alongside two single-digit dismissals in four innings, while Salt's best is 30 and he too has fallen for single digits twice.

The lack of early runs has added pressure on the middle order and introduced a sense of caution into what is usually a free-flowing line-up. Brook acknowledged as much, suggesting England could afford to show greater intent at the top. "I feel like we can probably be a bit more brave in certain situations and [the key] is having more faith in the guys behind us to be able to go out there and put a decent score on as well."

A 30-ball 83 against South Africa last September and an unbeaten 97 for Durban Super Giants against Pretoria Capitals in the SA20 in January 2026 have been the standout knocks for Buttler, who has otherwise largely fallen short of his usual standards.

He managed only 28 runs in the two-match T20I series against Ireland in September, 33 in two innings against New Zealand in October, and 89 in three T20Is against Sri Lanka in the lead-up to the World Cup. Even in the SA20, removing the unbeaten 97 leaves him with just 73 runs from six innings. Since September 2025, Buttler has aggregated 473 runs from 20 innings at a modest average of 24.89, numbers only propped up by the two fifties in that period.

Buttler himself admitted to frustration with his returns. "I'm a bit frustrated, to be honest," Buttler said on his podcast, For the Love of Cricket. "I felt like I was playing really well in South Africa, in the SA20, without getting scores. One thing I'd always pride myself on in T20s is, if you get in, to be able to go on and make a good contribution. I found myself getting out in the teens and twenties quite a bit, getting starts and then finding ways to get out.

"I think [I have been] maybe almost trying a bit too hard, as opposed to just being a bit relaxed at the crease and letting it happen. The first two games, I got in, 20-odds, and not managing to go on and make those telling contributions is frustrating. And then a couple of low scores against Scotland and Italy... T20, you want to be positive and get on with it, but [I] made a couple of mistakes and got out.

"I love batting and I love playing cricket and I love scoring runs. As much as you're frustrated with your form and you want to obviously contribute to the team, part of cricket is I love batting, and so not doing as much batting as you would like is frustrating. It's just trying to remember the things that you do well at your best and trying to take each game as it comes," said Buttler.

Despite the lean run, there is little sense of panic within the England camp around Buttler's form, with the management and captain continuing to back the opener's experience and track record in the format.

"He's fine," said Brook on Buttler. "He's always going to be fine. He's been in situations like this many times, and that's part of T20 cricket. It's a fickle game, and one minute you can be smoking it, and then the next minute you can just hit one up. So I think Jos will be fine, and hopefully the Super 8s can bring the best out of him now."

Salt's struggles, meanwhile, are more confined to this World Cup. In the same period (since September 2025), he has accumulated 713 runs in 23 innings, including a century and three fifties. His average of 33.95 would have been higher but for his current returns. Echoing his captain, Salt too had spoken about the need to rediscover their best version with the bat.

"There are a lot of different aspects to it [analysis], coaches going around players individually, saying what they like and didn't like, but that's not exclusively for after a defeat. That's part of the daily process of getting better as a team. That's probably the part that you don't see. But I think the overriding theme was exactly that: a little bit too careful, a little bit too tentative. We know we've got to let ourselves go, trust in ourselves the rest of the competition," Salt had earlier said.

The likes of Will Jacks, Jacob Bethell and Tom Banton have stepped up to provide the finishing thrust in England's recent wins, with their captain too yet to make a major impact beyond a half-century against Nepal.

"We'd rather not start amazing and finish amazing than start amazing and finish bad," Brook had said earlier in the tournament. Whether that balance holds against stronger opposition, or the openers rediscover their touch, may well shape England's Super 8s campaign.