England dignified in defeat but summer will bring new challenges

A winter that started with Harry Brook being dropped by a nightclub bouncer, ends with Harry Brook dropping a Sanju Samson.

England’s seven-run defeat by India in the T20 World Cup semi-finals was a match for the ages. It will be remembered for Jacob Bethell’s phenomenal, but ultimately in vain, 105 off 48. But it will be Brook who will look back and wonder how he dropped the simplest of catches off Sanju Samson when the Indian opener was on 15. He went on to make a brutal 89 off 42.

There is no shame in losing to India in Mumbai. A thrilling contest where 499 runs were scored rounded off an impressive English campaign.

Off the back of a disastrous Ashes series, the potential for things to ­spiral was ripe. The coming months will be used to decide whether it was enough to save head coach Brendon McCullum’s job. But while England’s winter finished with a glimmer of pride, it remains to be seen if their summer will begin with the same dignity. The first Hundred auction takes place this week following the sale of all eight franchises to private equity. The women’s auction takes place on Wednesday, the men’s on Thursday.

Huge amounts of money are now on offer. Each team have already signed four players ahead of the auction, with Brook set to be the top earner after already agreeing a deal worth about £465,000 for his month of work for the newly named Sunrisers Leeds. In total, the men’s salary pot has increased 45% for the 2026 ­season, rising to £2.05m per team, while the women’s has increased by 100% up to £880,000 per team.

All eyes will be on whether any Pakistani players will be signed. Last week, the England Cricket Board and the eight franchises were forced to release a joint statement committing to selection being based on “performance, availability, and the needs of each team” after it had been reported by the BBC that the four sides with part or full ownership by companies that control IPL teams would enforce a “shadow ban” on Pakistani players for geopolitical reasons.

The statement came five days after the BBC’s report, to which three of the four ownership groups initially declined to comment. There have subsequently been 14 Pakistanis named on the longlist for the ­auction, but there is no guarantee that any will be signed. The Pakistani ­community is a pillar of the game in the UK. And the notion that they could be excluded from the ECB’s flagship competition – which carries the tagline “The Hundred is for Everyone” – is as shameful as they come.

Nevertheless, the more cynical response to this scenario has been: “What else should we have expected?” Pakistani players have not featured in the IPL since 2009 and no Pakistani players have featured in South Africa’s SA20, which launched in 2023, where all six of the teams are owned by IPL franchise groups.

Last year ECB chief executive, Richard Gould, said he was “aware” of playing restrictions encountered by cricketers from Pakistan, “but that won’t be happening here”.

It is not naive to expect such clear statements from those leading our game to be stuck to. More to the point, it is imperative that they are.

Photography by Indranil Mukherjee / AFP via Getty Images