Usually, it's hype music. But ahead of his England team's T20I against Sri Lanka on Tuesday night, Harry Brook watched highlights of their new white-ball mentor, Kevin Pietersen, to get in the mood. He subsequently went out and smashed a career-best 114 not out in a dominant opening win of the series.
"I was just watching on my phone," Brook said, after revealing he sat down with Pietersen's highlights from the 2005 Ashes earlier that day. The suggestion posed was that maybe Pietersen had got them up on the TV screens inside the dressing room; alas, although a brash alpha of an international cricketer, he is adopting a subtler approach as coach.
Brook was just six years old during Pietersen's breakthrough series against Australia, becoming a voracious consumer of the DVD boxset. He was 11 during Pietersen's player-of-the-tournament run during England's World T20 success in 2010, and 15 when it all came crashing down. Now, aged 27, he is linking up with another 'it's the way I play' icon. For both parties, and for England, it is a union that might have come at the perfect time.
Plenty around and within the squad have been pleasantly surprised by Pietersen's enthusiasm for his new role. Enough water has flowed under the bridge since his controversial axing in 2014, but his love of pulling on England colours again has been abundantly clear, both on social media and in person.
As critical as he has been in the past, Pietersen has always been open to those seeking his counsel. Jos Buttler was a notable example, leaning on him during personal battles with form. He even enlisted Pietersen's services during his captaincy tenure to address the group during a tour of South Africa in 2023.
Accompanying Pietersen's experience and perspective is an infectious energy that does not seem to be eating into his status as someone the players want to impress. Sonny Baker, for instance, used his sponsorship with a local Hampshire butcher to make biltong for Pietersen, a South African twist on an apple for the teacher.
"I've not interacted with him much as of yet, but one thing I can tell you is that he enjoyed my biltong," Baker said, fresh from his 3 for 12 at the Utilita Bowl. "I put a bit of topside [of beef] in my biltong maker and he was pleased with that. I'm always nervous to get South African guys to try it because they can be quite - how do I phrase this? - critical, at times, of biltong in particular."
Having sped down to Southampton from Birmingham on Sunday after the conclusion of the Pakistan Test series, Brook's time with Pietersen has been limited. But a second T20I century at No. 3, a position he only took up after Brendon McCullum suggested it around a pool in Sri Lanka during the T20 World Cup, hints at one of many threads Pietersen can help straighten out.
Pietersen was a No. 3 for the majority of his T20 career, and played with all the same gusto that Brook purveyed with 16 boundaries across 49 balls in his third white-ball century of the year. There may not be much crossover with their shots - Brook rarely, if ever, switch-hits, and Pietersen never tumbled into a ramp over the keeper - but their polarising takes on traditional batting whims are one of the same.
All of which brings us neatly onto Test cricket. Though Pietersen's remit is officially for the white-ball set-up through to next winter's 50-over World Cup, England's Test tours of South Africa and Bangladesh, along with next summer's Ashes, are conveniently breadcrumbed across this period.
The nature of Pietersen's role is relatively ad hoc, pertaining to a number of days around existing commitments. All of which makes any off-the-book, tangential nuggets picked up across Pietersen's 104 Tests that much easier for Brook to broach.
Pietersen has been an advocate of Brook's for some time, as he made clear 18 months ago when their first mentor/mentee relationship was kiboshed by Brook's decision to pull out of an IPL deal with Delhi Capitals. Now that they are finally getting their time together, Brook is keen to get into it all with someone he regards as a kindred spirit.
"He looked at batting slightly differently [to most] and in a similar way to me as well," Brook acknowledged. "He always wants to try and look to put the bowlers under pressure and I'm looking forward to working with him a lot more.
"I mentioned it to him earlier [about the prospect of] him trying to help me in reading different surfaces, and using my skills to perform... That's not just for white-ball cricket, that's for Test cricket as well. Hopefully, he can have a big impact on my career, and on everybody's career."
Even with a claim to being the world's most complete cross-format batter, Brook's Test career is at an intriguing juncture. On tough decks, surrounded by chaos behind the scenes, he was comfortably England's best batter this summer with 432 runs at 43.2. Yet when he lines up against South Africa in December, it will be 17 months since his last century.
By the end of Pietersen's third summer in 2007 - which, like Brook in 2026, he finished aged 27 - he had as many Test hundreds (10) from 13 fewer innings. Brook might share a knack for outrageous innings and maddening dismissals, but he doesn't yet come close to Pietersen's relentless appetite.
It is a fault in Brook's game that gets the most attention. Even Ben Stokes' social media post during Tuesday night's T20I, imploring detractors to just enjoy his brilliance, neglected the fact Stokes himself told Brook at the end of the Ashes that he should be averaging over 60, not just over 50.
It was instructive that Brook, fresh from a 15th international century, referenced previous missed opportunities this summer. There have been five Test fifties, including 91 at Headingley against Pakistan, along with an unbeaten 95* in his previous T20I against India, also in Southampton.
"I feel like I've been there and thereabouts all summer, to be honest, in all three formats," Brook said. "I feel like I've let myself down a couple of times where I've had the opportunity to score a big score."
With ODIs now a priority, England considered resting Brook for this series. But their decision to play him through, reinforced by Brook's own insistence, is allowing him to take more opportunities before the end of the summer. And the most important might be England's latest batting maverick learning from its last.