England's 'Jack of all trades' delivers for Brook again

By the time the lights came up at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Will Jacks had already pocketed the match ball, signed a dozen autographs and, in the eyes of captain Harry Brook, probably earned another nickname. “He’s the Jack of all trades who can do everything,” Brook grinned after England’s 63-run win over Sri Lanka that leaves them one victory from a T20 World Cup semi-final.

The numbers back the praise. Three Player-of-the-Match awards in this tournament alone, a tournament-saving 39 not out against Nepal, a first T20 fifty against Italy and, on Brook’s 27th birthday, 21 runs and three telling wickets against Sri Lanka. Each intervention has arrived just as England flirted with elimination, and each has been delivered with the nonchalance of a man who once opened the bowling against Travis Head in Barbados and lived to joke about it.

Sunday night was different. Asked to take the new ball for the first time since that Head mauling 18 months ago, Jacks conceded four runs in his opening over and then removed Kusal Mendis and Pavan Rathnayake in successive balls. Rathnayake, rated by Brook as Sri Lanka’s best player of spin, charged first ball and sliced to the off-side ring. “Crucial,” Brook said. “Set the tone.”

Jacks’ four-over spell was the most accurate of his England career: 91% of deliveries landed on the stumps or in the channel, a stat that would have sounded fanciful during an Ashes winter when his six wickets cost 394 runs. The only blemish, a waist-high full toss swatted for six by Dasun Shanaka, was erased two overs later when Jacks clung on at long-on to begin a relay catch that ended Shanaka’s night and, effectively, Sri Lanka’s pursuit.

Control has not always been Jacks’ companion. In Australia he was front-page tabloid fodder, pint in hand in Noosa, and on it he bled 212 runs for two wickets in the Adelaide Test. Yet even then his stubborn lower-order batting hinted at a temperament built for the shorter format. Now, with bleached-blond hair earning him the dressing-room moniker Slim Shady, he is England’s utility match-winner, rapping on request and opening with either bat or ball.

Brook and Jacks go back to 15-year-olds facing off at the Bunbury Festival—London schools versus the north—before rooming together with the Under-19s. When controversy stalked Brook in Wellington at the start of this campaign, Jacks fronted the media to shield his mate. On the field he has returned the favour in runs, wickets and moments that linger: the 53 not out that wrenched the Italy chase beyond reach; the 39 not out that averted humiliation against Nepal; the birthday haul that keeps England’s winter rolling.

“I love getting responsibility with the ball,” Jacks said. “It encourages me to get into the game and perform better.” Brook, leaning on the railing of the team balcony, simply nodded. His Jack of all trades is mastering them all at exactly the right time.