England lost the first T20I against India.© AFP
The evening smog in Kolkata made it doubly harder to pick mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy from his hand, feels England vice-captain Harry Brook, who is hoping that Chennai air will be comparatively clearer for sighting the white Kookaburra. Chakravarthy picked up the wickets of Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone and Brook during his game changing spell of 3 for 33 in India’s emphatic seven wicket victory over England in the first of the five-match T20I series. “Chakaravarthy is an exceptionally good bowler,” Brook told the Daily Telegraph.
“But with the smog the other night, it was a lot harder to pick. Hopefully the air is a bit clearer here and we can see the ball a bit easier. Facing spin in T20 cricket is probably the hardest thing in the game, especially because I always get out trying to absolutely smack it,” he said.
Brook said that he is devising his own method to counter spin. “Maybe I’ve got to rein in a little bit, but we’ll see. I think I do have a method. It’s just trying to do it consistently and more often. I come in the middle order, so the first few balls I face are usually off spin.” Brook had an IPL century couple of seasons back when he played for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Chakravarthy’s Kolkata Knight Riders.
Having been completely bamboozled by the wrist spinner, Brook wouldn’t mind revisiting his hour of glory against a known opposition.
“I was going to watch it on the way in (to Friday’s practice session) but my phone wouldn’t work, so I’ll have a look a little bit later,” he added.
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