Harry Brook happy as Joe Root and England put Sri Lanka in a spin

Harry Brook hailed an “awesome” innings from Joe Root and praised his battery of spinners as England ended their long wait for an away ODI win.

Root’s 75 led England to their target of 220 and a five-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the second ODI in Colombo to level the three-match series 1-1.

Brook used six spinners, bowling 41 overs and taking a combined seven for 130 as England played Sri Lanka at their own game on a turning wicket to give themselves a chaseable target.

It was a first ODI victory on their travels since Brendon McCullum added the white-ball job to his Test role in January 2025, ending an 11-match losing streak in total.

Brook played a key hand with 42 and an 81-run partnership with Root after England began to wobble and he said watching his fellow Yorkshireman bat from the other end was a pleasure.

“His footwork and his ability of picking lengths is immaculate,” Brook said of Root, who made a half-century in back-to-back matches on this tour.

“He’s always looking for certain areas to score, boundary options and then his ability to get off strike as well is awesome so it’s very good to watch from the other and you can learn a hell of a lot from him.”

England were undone by Sri Lanka’s spinners in a 19-run defeat in Thursday’s series opener at this ground and were faced with another challenging wicket.

Having lost the toss and been asked to bowl again, Brook made full use of his spin options but both he and Root were critical of the surface.

Root told TNT Sports that it was “not a great wicket for ODI cricket” and Brook added: “It obviously wasn’t a great wicket, it wasn’t a very exciting game.

“You just couldn’t really time the ball. It was just a matter of trying to get off strike and just take it as deep as possible.

“This pitch has obviously turned a lot more. It was probably similar to the first game, second half of the innings. It was a tough wicket.”

Brook picked out Adil Rashid, who claimed two for 34, as he lauded his spin attack.

“Adil has been an awesome bowler for so many years now,” Brook said. “The challenge is to try and keep the stumps in play as much as possible on these surfaces and all of the spinners did that really well in this game.

“Spin was probably the hardest bowling to face and the lads did an amazing job, all six spinners or however many spinners I bowled.

“It’s nice to see that they kept us in the game for a long time and the Sri Lankans didn’t really get away from us at any point.”

England were forced into a change as Zak Crawley was sidelined with a knee injury but sprung a surprise by promoting spinning all-rounder Rehan Ahmed, 21, from number eight to the top of the order for the first time in international cricket.

He was bowled for 13 and Brook admitted the gamble did not really pay off.

“We wanted him to try and get us off to a flyer in the power play,” Brook said. “Obviously, it didn’t work tonight but he still got us off to a decent start.”

The series decider takes place at the same ground on Tuesday.