‘Was a lot harder…’: England vice-captain Harry Brook blames ‘Kolkata smog’ for defeat in first T20I

The England batter stated that it became very hard to read spinner Varun Chakravarthy from his hand because of the smog in Kolkata during the first T20I

England vice-captain Harry Brook hopes that the air in Chennai will comparatively be a lot cleaner than the evening smog in Kolkata which made it hard to pick India spinner Varun Chakravarthy from his hand.

Chakravarthy picked up the massive wickets of Brook, Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone and finished with figures of 3/33 as India bundled out the visitors for just 132 runs in the first T20I of the 5-match series.

“Chakravarthy is an exceptionally good bowler. 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,” Brook told The Daily Telegraph.

“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 added.

Brook did score a highly impressive century in the IPL a couple of seasons back, featuring for the Sunrisers Hyderabad against Chakravarthy’s Kolkata Knight Riders. The England batter will be looking to improve on his performance in the second T20I of the series which will be played in Chennai on January 25.

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