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On the eve of the third ODI at Lord's, England captain Harry Brook was bombarded with questions about Indian legends Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. But the young skipper wasn't ready to entertain any premature eulogies.

When an Indian journalist asked him to pay early tributes to the two batting greats who appeared to be on their final tour of England, Brook kept things short and steered clear of any emotional farewell talk. "I don't know what's been said about Rohit. They've obviously been phenomenal players for many years, and it's good to see them still playing the game," Brook told reporters with characteristic restraint.

Instead, Brook chose to focus on the man who has been England's batting bedrock—Joe Root. With scores of 111, 76, and 99* in his last three ODI outings, Root is yet to face a dismissal and has been in the form of his life. The 35-year-old also became the first Englishman to remain stranded on 99 not out in an ODI at Cardiff earlier this week—a testament to his selflessness and team-first approach.

Brook openly admitted that England have become heavily dependent on their Yorkshire teammate. "Root has been such a good player for so many years, and it's awesome to have him on the side, and yes, we probably have depended on him quite a little bit in recent times in ODIs and Tests," Brook conceded.

He went on to praise Root's unique ability to rotate strike with effortless grace. "Hopefully, boys can learn from what he's doing, and myself included, realise how easy he's making batting look to be able to just rotate the strike. He's arguably the best rotator of the cricket ball that's ever played the game. He just makes it look so easy. If we can add a little bit of Joe Root into our batting as a collective team, then we'll definitely be in some strong positions," Brook added.

Root himself had conceded after the series-levelling win in Cardiff that England are essentially learning on the job in the 50-over format. Brook echoed that sentiment, saying, "I think you're always learning; you've got to keep trying to improve as a player, no matter the format or how many times you've played the game. He's played nearly 200 ODIs. He's still trying to learn. He's still trying to get better, and he's England's greatest-ever batter. That's a fact."

Brook also addressed the struggles of young opener Jacob Bethell, who has managed just 18 runs at an average of 9 in the series so far. Despite the poor returns, the captain backed his teammate. "He's a very talented player as we've all seen; we've seen how good he can be. You can't judge a player off just two innings. He's playing against some of the best bowlers in the world, and hopefully he can get into his innings and score big for us," Brook noted.

When asked about England's partial split with Brendon McCullum, released as Test head coach but retained for white-ball cricket, Brook smiled and said, "That's a question for Baz. He is fully focused on the white-ball side now, and hopefully we can keep winning games."

With England having turned the page on the Bazball era following a sobering Test series defeat to New Zealand, Brook is now focused on building consistency. "We just want to go back to trying to win games of cricket. We want to put ourselves in strong positions as much as we possibly can," he said.

For Brook, the message was clear: while Rohit and Kohli deserve their due respect, England's present and future lie in their own players, and none more so than Joe Root.