England captain Harry Brook admitted his team could have found themselves in serious trouble had they not defeated Nepal earlier in their opening game of the T20 World Cup 2026, following a disappointing 30-run defeat to the West Indies in their Group C clash at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
England entered the contest after narrowly surviving a scare against Nepal. However, against the West Indies, they were outplayed in all departments. West Indies posted 196/6, thanks to Sherfane Rutherford’s
unbeaten 76 off 42 balls. In reply, England were bowled out for 166 in 19 overs, falling 30 runs short.
The defeat leaves England third in Group C on Net Run Rate, though qualification for the Super 8s remains within reach. With games against Scotland and Italy coming up in Kolkata, the Brook-led team's margin for error has narrowed. Brook admitted England conceded 15–20 runs too many with the ball.
"Thank god we won against Nepal the other night. Otherwise we'd be in a tricky situation We didn't quite execute well enough with the ball and they probably got 15, 20 too many. We thought it (197-run target) was chasable, definitely. We obviously planned for dew and it didn't quite get as dewy as we thought, and it didn't quite slide onto the bat as much as we were expecting," Brook said following the loss.
The game began with Jofra Archer and Sam Curran picking two wickets inside the first two overs. However, Rutherford rebuilt the innings before accelerating in the latter half. He found support from Roston Chase (34) and later Jason Holder (33 off 17), as West Indies hammered 66 runs in the final five overs to finish strongly at 196.
England’s chase began briskly, with Phil Salt smashing 30 off 14 balls and the team racing to 67/1 in the Powerplay. However, West Indies’ spinners, Gudakesh Motie (3/33), Roston Chase (2/29), and Akeal Hosein hunted in packs during the middle overs. England lost wickets in clusters, slipping from 74/1 to 131/5. Brook, who scored 17 off 14, mentioned that the team was a little bit careful in the chase.
"We were probably a little bit careful. Chasing nearly 200 is always a big ask and like I said we didn't think - we thought the pitch would get a little bit better and it'd slide onto the bat a bit more and that didn't happen. We can take a lot of confidence from not only the Nepal game, but the last T20 in Sri Lanka when they were both tight games. We can take a lot of confidence from them and in the depth with the batting that we have as well. We were stood up in the changing room and we still needed 50 off four overs and we still had faith. We can take a lot of confidence going forward. Obviously, it didn't pay off today, but another day it would work," he added.
