Captain Harry Brook says England can look forward with confidence

Harry Brook has drawn a line under a tricky T20 World Cup first group stage after admitting England took their eye off the ball against the Associate sides.

England won 10 of their 11 previous completed T20s before the tournament started, including a 3-0 clean sweep of Sri Lanka, but they scraped through a group containing one Test nation in the West Indies.

They lost that match and were unconvincing in beating Nepal, who came within one hit of a shock upset, as well as fellow minnows Scotland and Italy in India, but Brook believes England have a clean slate in Sri Lanka.

“It was a niggly start,” England’s white-ball captain said. “We probably underestimated a few of the sides and they put up a really good fight. But we see it as a new competition now.

“With no carrying over of points or anything like that, it’s a completely fresh start. We’ve just been slightly too careful and I feel like we can we can probably be a bit more brave in certain situations.”

England approach their first Super 8s contest against Sri Lanka on Sunday in Pallekele with a spring in their step, having beaten the tournament co-hosts on three occasions at this venue in the last month.

Despite losing to Zimbabwe last time out, Sri Lanka effectively ended Australia’s campaign with an eight-wicket win a week ago, when in-form opener Pathum Nissanka amassed a glorious unbeaten century.

“We had a very good series against them here and and on this particular ground,” Brook said. “They’re obviously a strong side with a lot of confidence as well.

“Nissanka’s on a bit of a heater, so it would be ideal if we can get him out early. But if we stick to our guns and play our best cricket, there’s no reason why we can’t beat them.”

Having last played on Monday, England could name an unchanged team for the fourth match in a row, but they declined to name an XI 24 hours early, as has become customary under head coach Brendon McCullum.

Jacob Bethell still has strapping on the ring finger on his left hand after sustaining a cut in the field against the Windies, which looks set to rule him out of fulfilling a role with the ball.

Fielders are generally allowed to have strapping or tape on their hands or fingers to guard against injury, at the discretion of umpires, but the regulations are far stricter for bowlers to prevent the potential for ball tampering or an unfair grip advantage.

Anyone who has their bowling hand taped up because of a pre-existing injury is not allowed to bowl, according to tournament regulations, and Bethell has yet to be called upon to deliver his left-arm spin.

However, the pitches in Sri Lanka could be slower and lower than India and with England’s opponents boasting four right-handers in the top-six, Bethell might be needed as a supplementary option to Adil Rashid, Liam Dawson and Will Jacks.

Brook said: “He’s got a decent cut on his finger so he’d have to have strapping on his finger. If there’s some way we can get around that then we’d like to bowl him.

“Hopefully he can somehow get over that and roll a few out. But at the minute, I don’t think it’s possible.”

There are showers forecast for this fixture but Brook added: “We’ve just got to prepare as if it is a T20 game and hope the rain stays away. If it doesn’t, we’ve got to adapt.”