“To be honest, we tried to stay away from cricket as much as possible. We just wanted to go there and have a good time, and we had a belting time,” he said. “It probably came at the right time when we’re 2-0 down.
“Most people won’t think that, but to get away from the game and refresh as much as possible after a tough start to the series, hopefully that can help us leading into this game.
‘That was nearly a bouncer and I tried to drive it’: Scott Boland celebrates the wicket of Harry Brook in Perth.Credit: Getty Images
“We haven’t played our best cricket, [but] hopefully this week is the start of it. I’m just going to see and adapt as well as possible. The great thing about batting in the middle order is you get to watch for a little while. So I’ll be thinking about my game and the risk and options I have before I go out there.”
Asked about Nathan Lyon’s looming recall, Brook said that England would attack the Australian spin bowler, but needed to be judicious about how they did so.
“He’s an extremely highly skilled bowler, he’s persistent, he takes a lot of load off their fast bowlers,” Brook said. “So we’ll obviously try to be aggressive against him and try to put him under pressure.
“But that may not be trying to hit sixes and fours all the time. We might have to rotate strike as much as possible, but just stay in the moment as much as possible, read the situations, read the pitch and play it accordingly.
“They’ve been incredibly highly skilled and they’ve nailed their execution. You can’t take this bowling attack lightly, they very rarely miss. You’ve got to try and create your own bad ball. That might be me running down, might be me changing my guard or whatever.”
As for Stokes’ pointed words about Australia not being a place for “weak men”, Brook said that it was a matter of standing up at the times when the game could swing either way.
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“It’s the pressure situations we haven’t been good at so far,” he said.
“When we’re head-to-head, they’ve managed to be the better side and sneak in front. Everyone realises that, and we’ve just got to stand up in certain situations.”
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