PAUL NEWMAN: Brilliant Brook compared to Kohli and Pietersen
PAUL NEWMAN: Brilliant Harry Brook has every shot in the book and been compared to Virat Kohli and Kevin Pietersen… the 23-year-old batter should be a mainstay of the England team for the next decade
- Brook starred in one of England’s greatest Test series triumphs in Pakistan
- The batter looked to have every shot in the book, both modern and traditional
- Straightforward Yorkshireman has shown exceptional cricketing intelligence
Ben Stokes compared him to Virat Kohli. Others, including our own David Lloyd, have spotted more than a touch of Kevin Pietersen about his leg-side flamboyance.
It is fair to say Harry Brook has made quite an impression in these early stages of what will surely be a truly great international career in both red and white-ball cricket.
There is little hyperbole in those comparisons either. Just the acknowledgment of a rare emerging talent that has lit up the Pakistani stage even among England’s array of stars in what has to be one of the greatest of all their Test series triumphs.
Harry Brook starred in one of England’s greatest Test series triumphs in Pakistan
If Brook was the epitome of ‘Bazball’ in smashing 153 off just 116 balls and then 87 off 65 in Rawalpindi in what was only his second Test then there was real maturity in his second innings hundred in Multan that earned him the award for player of this stunning second Test.
Stokes may have called Brook ‘dumb’ ahead of his debut at the Oval last summer but it would have been more accurate to call him straightforward in an archetypically Yorkshire way.
There is no question Brook has exceptional cricketing intelligence as he showed in learning from his first innings mistake against Abrar Ahmed in Multan and adding more responsibility to his play in going along at a mere four an over in his 108 off 149 balls.
The straightforward Yorkshireman has shown exceptional cricketing intelligence
It has made him the outstanding batter on either side in this series while his previous success in the Pakistan Super League for Lahore has shown that franchise leagues can help international cricket in familiarising Brook to conditions and his opponents.
And to think, just as Alex Hales would not have opened the batting for England in their Twenty20 World Cup win had Jonny Bairstow not broken his leg playing golf, it is hard to see how Brook could have started this series but for that freak off-field accident.
Bairstow will surely return to the England Test side when he is fit in the New Year, particularly after his starring role last summer, but it will have to be someone else who makes way. Brook, at 23, is surely not going anywhere for at least the next 10 years.
‘If you spoke to my mum and dad they would tell you virtually as soon as I could speak I would say I wanted to play cricket for England,’ said Brook when Sportsmail sat down with him in Canberra ahead of that Twenty20 World Cup triumph.
The 23-year-old was named player of the match in the second Test victory over Pakistan
Brook’s ambition and single-mindedness were plain to see then as was the thinking and clarity behind the technical change he made in conjunction with his mentor in former Sussex and Durham batter Martin Speight that prompted a spectacular change of fortunes.
‘I had to change because I was getting out in all sorts of ways,’ said Brook about a move he made just ahead of the pandemic. ‘Before I stood still but now I have a little back and across thing and that helps my balance, weight and my head to go towards the ball. I play straighter now and feel in a position to play almost any shot.’
Brook has certainly looked to have every shot in the book, both modern and traditional, in Pakistan.
And that, in a series that has completed England’s transformation from Ashes embarrassments a year ago to the most exciting, dynamic and in-form team in world Test cricket, is perhaps the biggest positive of them all.
Share this article
Source: Read Full Article