Phil Salt and Harry Brook announce themselves as England's next gen

As Harry Brook launched his first ball back over the bowler's head, West Indies captain Rovman Powell at long-on started to walk-in.

The ball had gone high, with the angle blurring whether it had gone far, or just gone up. Powell continued to walk-in, but just as you expected him to look up and settle himself for a catch, his stare remained gun-barrel straight. The ball had gone. And he had the next over to prepare for.

"Yeah, I knew I'd got it," Brook smiles. "It came straight out of the screws…I was waiting for the slower ball and I was looking straight the whole time. Thankfully he missed and I took the opportunity."

Brook had walked in to bat with 37 runs required off 13 deliveries. A total that was hauled in with a ball to spare as he contributed with a scarcely believable 31 not out off 7 balls.

The 21 runs he struck off the final over to win the match was a figure that had only ever been achieved once before in the history of T20I cricket.

"I was trying to stay as cool as possible and relaxed. As soon as I get tensed up that's when i lose my shape and I don't quite hit the ball as cleanly. So I was just trying to stay as cool as possible and free-flowing."

Brook's summary of the wave of emotions he felt when the winning runs came off his bat was typically understated, taking a moment to reflect, before sighing that, "yeah, it's a pretty good feeling." Whilst Phil Salt, who himself had contributed with the small matter of 109 not out off 56 balls, was more superlative, "There is no more special feeling than walking off the ground in an England shirt, winning the game."

Brook's talent is such that in an era where every other white-ball batter to be has had to wait their turn, he's been given a VIP wristband and allowed to jump the queue. Since the summer of 2022, Brook forced his way into the T20 side in time to play every single match of the victorious World Cup campaign before scoring four Test centuries in his first six matches, which in turn paved the way for his entry into the ODI set-up and eventually the World Cup squad.

By contrast, Salt is three years his senior and made his England debut a year earlier, but has lived a bridesmaid's international career. There to help out whenever required, but never afforded his own special day. Until yesterday.

"We spoke about that actually the other day," Brook said of England wanting to build a team of characters who can win when their backs are against the wall. "Trying to play with personality and go out there and show what you can do. Salty's done that beautifully today, it's his first hundred for England in T20 cricket and I'm sure if he keeps on batting like that he'll get many more."

In Brook and Salt's embrace at the end, you had a picture of two players with different routes but the same destination as integral members of England's next white-ball generation.

A point of particular pride for both players was that England, having scored 13 fewer sixes than the West Indies across the first two matches of the series, had turned the table in the third and out-Windied the Windies. Salt himself struck nine, Brook four, England 18 and the West Indies 16.

"It's an incredible effort," Salt said. "The power that those guys have. I've played with a lot of them, played with Dre in the Hundred, played with Rovman in the IPL. Even in the nets over there, I was a bit shocked at times with the raw power they have and then when you're playing against them, seeing the ball fly over your head, it's not just going ten metres over, it's a good 30, 40, 50 metres over the fence. Sometimes you are genuinely in awe of it.

"To out-six them today, it shows we've got what it takes. Mo (Moeen Ali) talked in the huddle before the game about fighting fire with fire, so that's a nice little stat, that."

Brook has long been considered a lock, but Salt's innings could for the first time have officially shifted the dial of England's white-ball pecking order. It was only a matter of months ago that Salt had lost his place at the top of the order to Will Jacks, but such is his propensity for attacking the powerplay that this series saw Salt get the nod at the top of the tree, with Jacks relegated to No.3. And now, with Jonny Bairstow's return on the horizon, it is difficult to imagine a world where England refutes the opportunity to keep Salt where he is, with Bairstow replacing Jacks at first drop.

It has taken eight years for the next generation to be afforded the chance to come through, but in Salt and Brook, England have the backbone of a batting line-up that will serve them well for years to come.