- 06 Nov 2024
Harry Brook, 25, wrote himself into the record books last week. In the first Test match against Pakistan at the Multan Cricket Stadium, the Yorkshireman became only the sixth English triple centurion in history. His high-quality, rollicking, nearly run-a-ball 317 was a knock of raw power and phenomenal pedigree. The explosive innings demonstrated what the world had known all along – Brook is no ordinary talent. On his day, he is a batter who can make the job of scoring runs look ridiculously easy.
Those that have been following Brook’s exploits — specifically, his oft-demonstrated prowess as an all-weather middle-order batsman — have been aware since his Test debut against South Africa at the Kennington Oval in September 2022 that the youngster is capable of extraordinary exploits.
Brook took to England head coach Brendon McCullum’s “Bazball” philosophy like a fish to water. In his first six Test matches, he amassed 809 runs at an average of 80.9 with a strike rate of 98.77. No batter in the annals of the game had ever announced his advent on the world stage with such a resounding bang. Playing against Pakistan and New Zealand, Brook registered scores of 153, 87, 9, 111, 89, 54 and 186, which was his highest until the Multan fireworks overshadowed everything he had done before. He and Joe Root registered a record-setting 454-run partnership – England’s previous best, 411, was made 57 years ago by Colin Cowdrey and Peter May.
Root and Brook not only took England to the fourth highest innings total in Test history — 823 for 7 declared — but also helped set up a win by an innings and 47 runs over a beleaguered Pakistani team.
In the course of the partnership, Root, England’s most successful Test batsman ever, overtook Alastair Cook’s aggregate to become his country’s leading run-scorer in the longest, and toughest, format of the game. He hit 262 only to be upstaged by the man who is being tipped by cricket observers to be the next Joe Root.
Brook’s 317 broke Virender Sehwag’s Multan record of 309, a mark that survived for 20 years and a bit and earned the Indian the sobriquet of “Sultan of Multan”.
It was another Indian batsman — Vinod Kambli — whose record Brook eclipsed earlier in his career by totting up 809 runs in his first six Test matches. Brook got those runs in his first nine Test innings, going past Kambli’s 796.
Brook’s tenth innings was an anti-climax of monumental proportions. He was run out without facing a ball and England lost the Test to New Zealand by the slimmest of margins – 1 run. At the end of the Multan Test, Brook’s aggregate stands at 1875 runs from 19 matches and 31 innings. His average in still well above 60 and his strike rate is slightly under 90. What these numbers convey is that Brook has only just started and there is much, more to come.
The English batter’s primary strength, pretty much like Root, is his innate versatility. He enjoys going out and batting no matter what the format is. He possesses the skill and temperament to adapt to the needs of the team. Brook can score at a fast clip – which is when he is at his most exciting – or dig his heels in and build an innings when the situation demands.
It is not without reason that legendary England pacer James Anderson has predicted that Brook has the chops to go past Root and Kevin Pietersen and take his place at the very top of the list of English Test batsmen.
No exaggeration there, but Brook, who has already made a mark in the two abbreviated forms of cricket too, will probably have to work a bit on his consistency. But that should come easy to a batsman as naturally gifted as him.
Just consider the England batsmen who have scored Test triple centuries – Andy Sandham, Wally Hammond, Len Hutton. John Edrich and Graham Gooch. Hammond, Hutton, Edrich and Gooch are among the greatest batsmen to have ever played the game. Brook is obviously in great company and rightfully so. He is the first English batsman this century – in fact, the first in 34 years – to notch up a 300-plus score. Although England’s first three triple centuries were all scored in the 1930s, the fourth came in 1965 and the one thereafter in 1990. So, Brook’s is a once-in-a-generation feat.
The encomiums that are being heaped upon the former England U19s captain are, of course, not merely a response to the numbers that he has achieved in his still-evolving and thriving international career. It is the manner in which he has gone about gathering his runs that separates him from everybody else. Harry Brook has the makings of a hard-to-stop run machine. He combines the crowd-pulling value of an Ian Botham or Andrew Flintoff with the uncommon solidity of a Joe Root or Alastair Cook.