Harry Brook dazzled in a 146-run partnership with Phil Salt as England hammered India by nine wickets to go 3-0 up in the five-match T20I series with India on Thursday night.
Yorkshire batter and white-ball captain Brook is in the running to replace retired Test captain Ben Stokes.
And the 27-year-old steered England to another impressive win in Bristol, where they reduced reigning T20 World Cup champions India to 158 for seven – then reached the winning target of 159 with 37 balls to spare, with just Jos Buttler (8) losing his wicket.
Brook displayed a brilliant range of shots in a player-of-the-match innings of 79no off 35 balls, while opener Salt peppered the Indian bowling attack (59no off 42 balls) to leave visiting captain Shreyas Iyer shell-shocked and 3-0 down with one match to play.
Bowled over
India won the toss and opted to bat, but Iyer (80no off 49 balls) scored the only innings of any substance as England’s pace attack ripped through the tourists’ batting line-up.
Jofra Archer (2-20), Josh Tongue (2-36), Will Jacks (1-28) and Adil Rashid (1-49) all chipped in with fine performances before Brook and Salt took centre stage with the bat.
The fifth and final T20I takes place in Southampton on Saturday – and a fourth successive victory would see Brook’s team leapfrog India to become the world’s number one side.
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Number one
Brook said on Sky Sports Cricket: “It is always good to beat India as they are a strong side and have been for many years.
“To be leading 3-0 with one match to go, we are very happy.
“It would be pretty cool for us to be world number one, to be honest. That is definitely an aim.
“If we keep doing what we have been doing and stick to our guns, hopefully we will come out 4-0.”
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Disappointing performance
Beleaguered India captain Iyer said: “It was another disappointing performance – 158 wasn’t the perfect total on the board and we saw how quickly England chased it down.
“I asked our bowlers to repeat the length as much as possible – top of middle stump and leg stump was difficult to score boundaries off. We fell short in execution.
“We are in a transition stage. We will make mistakes as a lot of youngsters are playing in these conditions for the first time.
“This will show them they need to adapt and learn quickly from their mistakes.”
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Michael Davey