The ICC World No. 2 Test batter and England’s middle-order mainstay Harry Brook is confident of his team chasing down any total set by the Indian team in the Birmingham Test. India ended Day 3 of the second Test (Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy) with a healthy 244-run lead over England with nine wickets left on Friday at Edgbaston.
“I still think we can win this Test match, to be honest. I believe if we take a couple of early wickets tomorrow and put them under pressure and hopefully they can crumble up there and everybody knows in the world that we are going to try and chase whatever they set us, so we’ll see how they play,” said Brook to BBC after his marathon 303-run partnership with wicketkeeper batter Jamie Smith.
England were looking down the barrels after they left India to score 587 in the first innings. When the day started, Joe Root and skipper Ben Stokes fell on successive deliveries off Siraj, leaving England at 84 for five. From there, Brook and Smith triggered a ruthless counter-attack, taking England past 400 with their 303-run stand. Brook scored 158 before being cleaned up by Akash Deep, while Smith remained unbeaten at 184, reducing the home side’s deficit to less than 200.
“It was nice to spend some time out there with Smudge [Jamie Smith]. He has a long England career ahead of him. Hopefully we’ve clawed ourselves back in the game. He played phenomenally well there. He put all the momentum back in our favour,” said Brook.
“If I hadn’t got out we would not be in this situation now but we saw last week how quickly it can change. Akash and Siraj bowled well. They attacked the stumps with all modes of dismissal in play,” he added.
In reply, India started their second innings confidently before opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was trapped in front by Josh Tongue.
“Thankfully we’ve seen the back of Jaiswal and hopefully we can make inroads tomorrow. India are in the driving seat but hopefully we can put pressure with early wickets and make them crumble,” said Brook.
