“This is the big league. This is Test cricket. It will humble you as a player and person.”
This was Dean Elgar, in September 2022, offering a gentle warning to Harry Brook on the eve of the latter’s Test debut against South Africa at The Oval. The middle-order batter had hammered 140 for England Lions against the visiting Proteas at Canterbury a month earlier and was being talked up as an incredibly exciting prospect, but South Africa’s then captain and seasoned pro seemed to be telling the budding rookie that Test cricket wouldn’t be quite so easy.
Ready on arrival
Well, little did Elgar know that Brook would indeed make Test cricket look easy. That he would take to the big league like he had always belonged. That he would race to 2,281 runs after 24 Tests at an average of 58.48 and a strike rate of 88.37, with eight hundreds. That he would become the first England batter since Graham Gooch in 1990 to amass a triple ton. One that he would get to, against Pakistan in Multan in October, in just 310 deliveries, second only to Virender Sehwag’s 278-ball effort against South Africa in Chennai in 2008.
Brook is also the third-fastest Englishman, behind Herbert Sutcliffe and Len Hutton, to 1,000 Test runs. Among his countrymen, only Sutcliffe, whose debut dates back to a century ago, got to 2,000 runs quicker than him.
Brook has done all of this while veering away from conventional wisdom about batting in the longest format requiring copious patience and a copybook defence. As a product of the new generation that has grown up consuming a considerable volume of T20 cricket, the 25-year-old, athletic and affable, lends weightage to scoring runs at a fast rate.
In essence, he fits right into the attacking philosophy espoused by captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. Although the circumstances of Brook’s entry weren’t ideal — Jonny Bairstow, in the form of his life, slipped on a golf course and fractured his left leg in a freak accident before the final Test of the English summer — the think-tank had little hesitation in thrusting the young Yorkshireman into the arc lights.
“There are just things that stand out about certain players, like the time they have at the crease, the shots they play,” Stokes said at the time of Brook’s induction.
Carving it up: The lack of a pronounced back-and-across trigger seems to facilitate Brook’s devastating off-side play, his high and fast hands slashing at anything remotely wide. | Photo credit: Getty Images
The first inkling that the youngster can turn promise into performance came just a few months later in his second Test, against Pakistan in Rawalpindi, when he walloped 153 off 116 deliveries and deflated the host’s morale altogether. A 65-ball 87 and two more hundreds on that tour as England whitewashed Pakistan set Brook firmly on his way.
As impressive as his numbers have been so far, it is his precious ability to take the game away from the opposition in a trice that turns heads and embodies what Bazball — the term attributed to England’s unfettered approach under Stokes and McCullum — is all about.
Whether England is 20 for three on a green top in Manchester or 200 for three on a flat surface in Multan, Brook always looks for ways to mount the pressure back on the bowlers. That impulse has been buttressed by Stokes and McCullum creating an atmosphere where these young players have the cushion to attack without instantly bearing the consequences of failure.
Shifting emphasis
In a larger framework, Brook’s style is also symbolic of how batting in Test cricket has transformed. Or certainly of how a Gen-Z batter perceives his craft. With the T20 format becoming an indispensable part of cricket’s fabric, the emphasis even in the five-day game has increasingly swayed towards aggression. Glancing through the strike-rates of the top five run-getters in Tests this year is illuminating. All five are striking at above 60, with Root, who leads the list, being the ‘slowest’ at 63.38.
Even among the top 10 run-getters this year, only Kane Williamson and Dinesh Chandimal have strike-rates lower than 60. That Williamson is 34 and Chandimal 35 suggests they could be among the last relics of a more conservative approach. To comprehend the rapid shift, you only need to look at the corresponding numbers from, say, five years ago: only two players — David Warner and Quinton de Kock — had strike rates above 60 among the top 10 run-getters in 2019.
So far in Brook’s flourishing career, he has never curbed his attacking instincts. His position at No. 5 is an ally too. Unlike the flamboyant Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, who are put through the wringer at the top of the order, Brook’s role mostly comes with the relative comfort of facing a slightly older ball. It allows him that much more liberty to counterattack.
It is not to say that Brook hasn’t negotiated adverse conditions and situations. All of his three hundreds in New Zealand, most notably, have been on surfaces with a palpable tinge of green and with the team teetering on the abyss. From 21 for three in Wellington in 2023, 45 for three in Christchurch and 26 for three again in Wellington on the most recent tour, Brook was able to conjure up three-figure knocks that dovetailed ball-striking flair with a calm temperament, indicating a distinct trait to thrive under pressure.
Stern tests await: Brook has excelled in Pakistan and New Zealand, but is yet to tackle the challenges of Australia and India. | Photo credit: Getty Images
Root, the only batter ahead of Brook in the ICC Test rankings, was lavish in praise of his teammate after the New Zealand series. “Brooky is far and away the best player in the world at the minute,” he enthused. “He can absorb pressure, he can apply it. He can smack spin. He can smack seam.”
Technical nuances
Brook’s set-up at the crease aids his attacking verve. Perhaps akin to hitters in baseball, he tends to hold the willow high in the air as the bowler runs in, as opposed to tapping it on the turf, and doesn’t have a pronounced back-and-across trigger movement. It seems to facilitate his devastating off-side play, his high and fast hands slashing at anything with a smidgen of width. Like with Australia’s Travis Head who dons a similar role at No. 5, the margin of error while bowling to Brook is therefore minimal.
The acid test for Brook will arrive on the turners in India — he missed the series earlier this year due to personal reasons — and the bouncy surfaces in Australia. Though his average in Pakistan is an enviable 84.10 after six Tests, it must be said that his runs in the subcontinent have come on egregiously placid decks. When Pakistan did dish out spinning pitches for the last two Tests of the series in October after Brook’s triple ton in the opener, his returns plummeted to 56 runs across four innings.
There’s, of course, some time until England embarks on another tour of India. Before that, Brook will be scrutinised based on how he fares against India at home and Australia away over the next 12 months. If he continues to smash massive hundreds, his status as a generational talent will be beyond doubt. If not, he can always strive to improve while remembering Elgar’s wise words: “This is Test cricket. It will humble you as a player and person.”
Published – December 27, 2024 11:59 pm IST
