NEW DELHI: England ODI captain Harry Brook, who smashed an unbeaten 136 off just 66 balls in the third ODI against Sri Lanka in Colombo, made headlines more for his celebration than his astonishing knock. Brook raced to a century in 57 balls, but what truly grabbed eyeballs was his WWE-inspired celebration.

Brook celebrated by removing both his batting gloves, clashing them together and tilting them towards his mouth in a gesture that mimicked the iconic ring entrance of WWE legend "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

"It was just more about celebrating tonight with the boys," Brook explained.

"Like I said the other day in my press conference, I've got to try and gain that trust back with the lads and the way I wanted to do that was perform, play well and lead from the front."

Former England captain Joe Root said Brook was making a genuine effort to earn the team's trust and stressed that his celebration should not be misinterpreted.

"I think that's his way of doing that really," Root said. "He's trying to show he wants that approval from the group, through humour.

"That's another area of why he's going to be a great leader, because he has that side to him as well.

"He's showed his calmness and his clarity under pressure, and he's also showed humour as well in doing that.

"Hopefully it's received in the right way because there's definitely no malice behind it, or anything other than trying to have a bit of a joke with his team-mates."

Brook arrived at the crease in the 32nd over to join Root and went on to play a blistering innings, striking nine sixes. The duo put together an unbroken 189-run stand, with Root bringing up his 20th century in ODIs as the visitors went on to clinch 53-run victory, eventually winning the three-match series 2-1.

Earlier, Brook had been in the news for the wrong reasons after clashing with a nightclub bouncer during England's tour of New Zealand, which came ahead of the team's heavy defeat in the Ashes series. However, Brook admitted he was fortunate to retain England's white-ball captaincy despite what he described as a "terrible mistake."

"I made a terrible mistake, not only as a player, but as a captain," Brook said last week. "It's very unprofessional and I should be leading from the front and showing the players how it should be as a professional cricketer and a captain and I put myself in a bad situation.