File image of Harry Brook.© AFP
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes England’s Harry Brook is currently the best Test batter in the world and added he remains in awe of his approach to playing the longer format. On Wednesday, right-handed Brook was unveiled as new top-ranked Test batter after going past his team-mate Joe Root in the rankings list, with his rating points being 898. Brook, 25, scored 171 in the first Test of England’s ongoing tour of New Zealand in Christchurch, and followed it up by making 123 and 55 in the second Test in Wellington.
Brook averages a whopping 89.35 in Tests away from home, as compared to just 38.05 on home soil, including seven of his eight Test centuries coming outside of England. “He probably is (the best Test batter in the world) right now. He is doing some pretty amazing things and most of them he is doing away from home.”
“That’s his seventh hundred now away from home out of eight or nine hundreds and it’s the way he gets his runs, with class and he gets them quickly under this new regime and I love watching him play,” said Ponting on the ICC Review show.
Brook made his Test debut in 2022, and has scored 2,280 runs from 38 innings across 23 matches so far with an average of 61.62. Ponting had roped in Brook for INR 4 crore in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in 2023 as head coach of the Delhi Capitals.
But Brook didn’t make it to IPL 2024 as he decided to stay in England due to personal reasons. Ponting, who will coach Punjab Kings in IPL 2025, believes Brook can flourish in all formats of the game.
“I got him in the IPL auction last year because I think he’s a generational type of player. I think he’s really starting to show that now at Test level and I think he can do the same across all three formats.”
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