{"id":114091,"date":"2025-05-19T10:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T10:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/114091\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T10:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T10:29:12","slug":"we-cant-take-our-eyes-off-the-ball-against-zimbabwe-englands-harry-brook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/114091\/","title":{"rendered":"We can\u2019t take our eyes off the ball against Zimbabwe \u2013 England\u2019s Harry Brook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harry Brook has urged England not to take it easy against the underdogs of Zimbabwe, insisting \u201cwe can\u2019t take our eyes off the ball\u201d.<\/p>\n

The international season gets under way at Trent Bridge on Thursday, with England\u2019s first Test against the southern Africans in 22 years.<\/p>\n

Expectations of a possible mismatch were only increased over the weekend as the tourists suffered a morale-busting 138-run defeat to an inexperienced county select XI at Grace Road.<\/p>\n

\"HarryHarry Brook wants England to maintain focus against an unfancied Zimbabwe side (Ben Whitley\/PA)<\/p>\n

Seventeen-year-old Thomas Rew, younger brother of new England call-up James, hit an unbeaten century in Leicester and 19-year-old Eddie Jack took five wickets as Zimbabwe crumbled against two youngsters who have yet to make their first-class debuts.<\/p>\n

England will be backed to pull off a resounding win of their own but Brook is on guard against complacency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t take our eyes off the ball but we want to go out there and win well, like we want to go and do in every game we play,\u201d he told the PA news agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure they are going to come out all guns blazing. They beat Bangladesh recently (a first Test victory in four years) and they\u2019ll be feeling good about that so I\u2019m guessing they are going to come hard at us.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully our skills are better than theirs and we get the win. We want a good surface, to spend some good time in the middle as batters and then let the bowlers do what they do and grab some wickets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AZimbabwe\u2019s trip to Trent Bridge is their first Test against England since 2003 (Nigel French\/PA)<\/p>\n

Despite Brook\u2019s caution, fans appear confident in England\u2019s ability to finish things off in rapid fashion. Already slated as a four-day Test, fans have been reluctant to buy in advance for Sunday\u2019s final day.<\/p>\n

As of Monday morning nearly 10,500 seats were still available in the 17,500-capacity stadium, despite most adult tickets costing a modest \u00a325. Sales for the first three days have been stronger, with around 2,700 still on sale for day one, 1,200 for day two and around 1,000 for Saturday\u2019s action.<\/p>\n

The match sees Zimbabwe return to English soil for the first time since 2003, a series that marked the debut of a fresh-faced James Anderson. He spent the next two decades collecting a historic haul of 704 Test scalps, retiring last summer before getting the chance to bookend his career against the same opponents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know we haven\u2019t played them since Jimmy\u2019s first series, he\u2019s told us all about it,\u201d said Brook. \u201cThey must have been waiting for Jimmy to retire to come back\u2026I don\u2019t blame them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

For Brook, the match is a final appearance before the start of his tenure as white-ball captain. He begins his reign against the West Indies at the end of this month having succeeded Jos Buttler and has already been giving some thought to the need for a deputy.<\/p>\n

As a first-choice player in all three formats, and with huge Test assignments against India and Australia coming up, Brook is likely to need an able lieutenant who can not only assist him but take over should he need to miss certain series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there will be a vice-captain in place soon. We haven\u2019t come to a conclusion on who that will be yet. There\u2019s a few names in the hat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have a few conversations with Baz (head coach Brendon McCullum) and see what he thinks. There\u2019s so many experienced people who can help already, the likes of Joe Root and Jos, but so much young talent coming in too that can lead from the front. There\u2019s so many to pick from.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe captaincy is going to be a challenge for me but it\u2019s something I\u2019ve got to take in my stride. I\u2019ll need to come up with a plan but I\u2019m okay with that, I like challenges.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Brook has urged England not to take it easy against the underdogs of Zimbabwe, insisting \u201cwe can\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,16,16849,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-114091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-uk-sports","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114534034200531414","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}