Harry Brook: England captain glad to ‘get again to the day job’ in opposition to Sri Lanka and finds positives from loss in first ODI

Harry Brook insists there have been positives to take from England’s efficiency of their one-day worldwide defeat in Sri Lanka, having seen build-up to their collection opener overshadowed by off-field controversies.

Brook admitted pre-match he feels fortunate to nonetheless be England captain after a nightclub altercation with a bouncer in New Zealand in October, a narrative that solely turned public after their 4-1 Ashes thumping in opposition to Australia.

England have additionally handled hypothesis over the way forward for the staff, with head coach Brendon McCullum’s place nonetheless in query and continued feedback surrounding the ‘ingesting tradition’ after a mid-Ashes journey to Noosa.

England had been undone by Sri Lanka’s spinners to fall to a 19-run defeat in Colombo, because the morale-boosting victory Brook’s males craved slipped away, leaving the vacationers 1-0 down within the three-match ODI collection.

“Lovely to get back to the day job,” Brook mentioned. “Unfortunately, we lost the game but there’s still a lot of positives to take from today.”

Kusal Mendis’ unbeaten 93 and Dunith Wellalage smashing 25 from 12 balls helped Sri Lanka set a testing goal in Colombo, though half-centuries from Joe Root and Ben Duckett appeared to have England properly positioned of their chase of 272 below lights.

England slipped from 129-1 to 165-6 throughout a irritating 12-over spell as Sri Lanka’s spinners took management, with the vacationers ultimately being dismissed within the last over regardless of a late 34-run cameo from Jamie Overton.

“With the batting power we have, it only took us to get off to a flyer for us to break the back of that chase,” Brook insisted. “On another day, we knock that off three down. The pitch got a little bit more extreme, the turn and lack of bounce, it was proving very difficult to start as a batter out there.

“Ducky [Ben Duckett] and Rooty [Joe Root] made it look pretty simple after they had been set and going however they each got here off and mentioned it was onerous to begin on there, simply getting used to the flip, bounce and typically the shortage of spin when it simply skids by.

“That’s something we’ve got to look at as a batting unit and hopefully we can take some positives forward into the next couple of games.”

Brook: Sri Lanka deserved the victory

England misplaced 11 of their 15 50-over matches throughout 2025, whereas a collection defeat in Sri Lanka would increase the embarrassing prospect of lacking out on automated qualification for the 2027 World Cup.

“That’s been spoken about a hell of a lot in the last year or so, but we just want to try and be in the moment as much as possible,” Brook admitted. “Sri Lanka have just outperformed us there.”

Brook mentioned about Sri Lanka within the post-match presentation: “It [the toss] was very crucial at the end but Sri Lanka have played a very good game there and deserved to take the victory.

“I assumed we bowled rather well by the center – the spinners bowled exceptionally properly. Clearly they bought maintain of us within the final over however that is a part of white-ball cricket.

“They’re a very good side, they’ve got some extremely good spinners as well. They were getting enough out of the surface to be able to get us to miss the ball. They challenged us in lots of different departments and they had a good game.”

England in Sri Lanka – outcomes and fixtures

All occasions UK and Eire

• First ODI (January 22, Colombo) – Sri Lanka win by 19 runs
• Second ODI (Saturday January 24) – Colombo (9am)
• Third ODI (Tuesday January 27) – Colombo (9am)
• First T20 (Friday January 30) – Pallekele (1.30pm)
• Second T20 (Sunday February 1) – Pallekele (1.30pm)
• Third T20 (Tuesday February 3) – Pallekele (1.30pm)