England white-ball captain Harry Brook motivated his fellow teammates Zak Crawley and Jordan Cox to build on their recent performances in Hundred 2025 in order to push for a place in the England side in ODIs and T20Is. Harry Brook mentioned this on the side-lines of the Hundred 2025 as Crawley was his teammate at Northern Superchargers while Cox played for Oval Invincibles.
For the record, England have gotten off to a winning start in their new white-ball era under Harry Brook’s captaincy who took over the reins in April. Under Brook’s leadership, England beat the West Indies in both ODI and T20I series in convincing fashion. Both Cox and Crawley, who are the highest and third-highest run-getters in Hundred 2025 respectively, haven’t been included in the squads against Ireland and South Africa.
Harry Brook’s Praise for Zak Crawley and Jordan Cox.
England white-ball captain Harry Brook was full of praise for both batters and stayed that every in-form player was still in the mix. Speaking to ESPN Cricinfo, Harry Brook said: “Everybody’s in the mix: whoever does well. Crawley obviously has the attributes that we’re talking about: putting pressure on the bowlers with their good and bad balls; he can manipulate the field really well; he’s good against fast bowling, and he’s good against spin.”
Harry Brook further added: “He’s got all the attributes to play white-ball cricket for England. It’s the same with everybody. Everybody’s been talking about Jordan Cox; he’s obviously an unbelievable player. You’ve just got to keep on doing it, and be as consistent as you can for a longer period of time; it’s good to have competition for places.”
While Jordan Cox has been part of three ODI games and two T20Is last year, Zak Crawley has played just eight ODIs, his last one was in December 2023.
ENG VS SA: A Riveting Series on the Cards.
Following a riveting five-match Test series against India, England return to playing white-ball cricket as they will host South Africa in six white-ball games. The ODIs come first and then the T20Is. The first of three ODIs takes place at Leeds, Headingley on September 2nd 2025 at 5:30 PM IST. It’s going to be an interesting and fascinating series between two evenly-matched teams.
While England are unbeaten under Harry Brook so far, South Africa comes into the ODI series on the back of a 2-1 series win against Australia Down Under a few weeks ago. Temba Bavuma will lead South Africa although his workload in the ODI series will be managed according to their head coach Shukri Conrad. The Proteas welcome back Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada both of whom missed the tour Down Under due to injury. Rabada played the T20Is but got injured thereafter.
Aiden Markram will be the key for South Africa with Matthew Breetzke and Bavuma to name a few. Keshav Maharaj is going to be a key member after his exploits in Australia. He is back in the T20 scheme of things. South Africa might have lost the T20I series but it was tight against the Aussies. We expect the Proteas to run England close and it will be tough to pick favourites at this stage. England under Harry Brook is a well-oiled machine and with Jofra Archer playing a role in this series, it will be important to see how things pan out in this series and the playing combinations of both sides.
The white-ball specialists of England are a well-oiled machine and will be eager to perform and beat South Africa. The task may not be easy, but the hosts will believe they have a chance and it will be an ideal warm-up to bigger events that are ahead in the next few months. The T20 World Cup is the big event and the teams will face in the T20I series soon. All eyes on the ODIs for now. We shall see how things pan out when the series gets underway in Headingley on the 2nd of September.