Consolation Win Ends Series: McCullum Praises Brook’s Captaincy and Team Resilience

England closed out their tri-series in Pakistan with a consolation win over Sri Lanka in Lahore, and coach Brendon McCullum believes the experience will prove valuable despite a difficult campaign. McCullum said England learned important lessons from the tournament and praised the players’ resilience, particularly Harry Brook’s captaincy, after a hard-fought final match. England had been in serious danger of a fourth straight defeat when the game entered its final ten overs. Ben Duckett’s 167 had helped set Sri Lanka an imposing target of 387, but Pavan Rathnayake, who had starred in Sri Lanka’s 430-run chase in Rawalpindi the previous week, again threatened to take the game away. Sri Lanka were 300 for 5 after 40 overs and looked well placed. This time, however, England found the breakthroughs that had eluded them in recent close defeats. Liam Dawson was the key figure, taking 4 for 49 in ten overs. McCullum said the performance was “very satisfying” and admitted England had been behind the game when Sri Lanka were five down. He credited Brook with slowing the game down, making important decisions and helping England take the wickets they needed. McCullum said England had spoken extensively before the tri-series about giving experience to less seasoned players, noting that the side has talent but is not a super-experienced one-day unit. He said Brook would have grown enormously from the experience and described his captaincy in glowing terms, praising not only his tactics but also his leadership. McCullum called Brook one of the best tactical captains he has come across, saying he has an astute cricket brain and is highly switched on despite wearing his intelligence lightly. He said Brook has the respect of the entire dressing room and leads in an interactive way, calling on other players rather than making every decision alone. McCullum added that Brook will have learned a lot from being thrust into high-pressure situations where decisions can win or lose a game. England were disappointed not to reach the tri-series final, especially after Sri Lanka’s win over Pakistan on Monday ended their mathematical chances. However, McCullum insisted the team remains on track for the 50-over World Cup in South Africa next year. England will travel to Australia later this week for a warm-up match against Western Australia and three further ODIs. McCullum said England will assess what they got right and what they did not, and will look to keep improving. He stressed that the team wants to challenge seriously for the World Cup in 12 months’ time and will learn from this trip, even though missing the final was disappointing. There were several individual positives. Brook made a career-best 202 against Sri Lanka, Duckett scored back-to-back hundreds in the final two games, and Tom Banton hit three fifties at the top of the order. Dawson’s seven wickets at 21.42 were also notable, especially as he was chosen ahead of senior spinner Adil Rashid, who was omitted for the final three games. McCullum said Dawson had done really well and noted that left-arm spin had been a consistent threat across the tournament, pointing to Pakistan’s Arafat Minhas, who topped the averages with nine wickets at 16.11. He said legspin had not played a major role across the three teams and that England want to be adaptable and flexible with selections. He described Dawson as an experienced and highly competitive player who took his chance, while acknowledging that conditions probably went against Rashid on this occasion.