Mumbai: When they started their campaign in the 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, Harry Brook's England had to live up to a huge record for his country, as the two-time champions have made it to the semifinals in every edition since 2016, when they lost to the West Indies in the final in Kolkata.
England lost to New Zealand in the last-four stage in 2021, beat Pakistan in the final to win the title in 2022 and lost to eventual winner India in the semifinals of the 2024 edition.
By making it to the semifinals of the 2026 edition, Harry Brook's side has lived up to that reputation. They are now hoping to get past hosts India and become the first team to win the T20 World Cup thrice.
England have navigated past some tight situations -- they looked down and out against minnows Nepal in their opening league match and then against Pakistan in the Super 8 stage, before bouncing back to win both the matches and eventually finished atop the standings in Super 8 Group 2.
Skipper Brook said these Houdini acts by his team has given it the confidence to take on India, who are always a strong side at home because of their familiarity with the conditions and the strong support they muster from the stands -- in a knockout encounter.
Asked whether winning the decisive moments in tough encounters lends an air of being unbeatable to the team, Brook said it does give his team a lot of confidence.
"No, definitely not unbeatable, but I think it gives us a lot of confidence going into tomorrow as well. We've won them tight games, which in World Cups prove to be very important as well. And we've got a lot of confidence going into the deeper parts of the game. We've won games, like you said, which we probably shouldn't have won. And it just feels like we've never really been out of any game so far, which holds you in good stead in these world competitions," said Brook in the pre-match press conference ahead of the semifinals.
In Brook's leadership, England have come up with some strong performances and have emerged as a strong contender to dethrone defending champions India as they are the team with the best record after India. But Brook said he was not aware of such stats, but said his side is confident in its abilities and will go into the semifinal at the Wankhede Stadium with the confidence gained from the calm demeanour they showed while extricating themselves from tricky situations.
"We've obviously played some good cricket over the last year or so, and hopefully we can play some more good cricket tomorrow. I do believe that India were the favourites from the start of the competition, as they should be on their home soil, home crowds and knowing the venues better than anyone else. But T20 is such a fickle game, and anything can happen. (IANS)
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