Newsflash, world: England are no longer poor against spin, nor are they hesitant users of it. As England prepare to play a South Asian side in Mumbai in a World Cup semi-final, their captain Harry Brook wants you to know the old assumptions about where England's weaknesses lie might be a little out of date.
As evidence, Brook entered England's returns in Sri Lanka, where pitches have been significanty more spin-friendly than in India this World Cup, particularly in Colombo. Not only did England win all three of their Super Eight matches on the island (beating Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Pallekele before taking down New Zealand in Colombo), they had also crushed Sri Lanka in the bilateral series before the World Cup, winning the T20Is 3-0, and the ODIs 2-1.
"I feel like England always get a bad rap about playing against spin," Brook said in Mumbai, ahead of the semi-final against India. "We've gone to Sri Lanka and we've won six games in a row against a subcontinent side who are very good in their own backyard. We've got a lot of confidence playing on turning pitches."
Although England's batting through the course of this World Cup has been inconsistent - Brook himself the only one of their batters among the tournament's top 10 run-scorers - their spin attack has been outstanding.
Legspinner Adil Rashid has led the way, taking 11 wickets in seven matches with an economy rate of 7.83, but the finger-spinners haven't been far behind. Left-arm spinner Liam Dawson has 10 wickets for the tournament, with an economy rate of 7.30, and offspinner Will Jacks has seven wickets himself. If you add Rehan Ahmed's two to the tally from his one-off appearance against New Zealand, that's 30 England wickets that have come from spin, or roughly 54% of their overall tally.
Only Pakistan (who played their entire tournament in Sri Lanka) have taken more wickets with spin this World Cup.
"We've got some very good spinners as well," Brook said. "Our spinners have bowled extremely well in this competition and India will have to tackle that challenge as well."
There is some focus on the fragility of India's own spin contingent ahead of this match, with Varun Chakravarthy having gone at more than 10 runs an over in the Super Eight stage. This is counterbalanced by England having lost six wickets to spin at the Wankhede against West Indies, in the one match they've lost this World Cup.
"India have always produced very good spinners, and we've accepted that before coming into this competition," Brook said. "Chakravarthy is one of the best bowlers in the world, and I'll try my best to face him and score as many runs as I can against him."
Despite apparent improvements in the spin department, one observation about England's campaign so far has been that it has lacked a "perfect" outing, largely because the batting has not clicked wholesale, as it did for England in their 2019 and 2022 World Cup wins. But why does that matter when England keep winning, Brook argued.
"I don't think we need a perfect game to win the competition, to be honest," he said. "Them games that we have won have been nowhere near perfect, and we still managed to get the wins - convincingly in some of them, and tight in some of them. But it's about the unity that we've had to be able to get across the line, and the belief that everybody's shown throughout these games, and the calmness that we've had when the bowlers have stood at the top of their marks."