Harry Brook believes he’s ready to open for England

Abraham Smith

Harry Brook was so close.

He’d made it look easy, just getting so far, a losing, confident inning that was aggressive but controlled.

Now at 95, with Lutho Sipamla coming in, he was about to demonstrate both.

A rearfoot strike barely seemed to kiss the ball, but the timing was great and a boundary through the ceilings put Brook on 99.

The next ball was a tighter line and Brook smoothly moved to the defense.

Sipamla’s last delivery rebounded a bit higher, the kind of ball that can cramp a batsman, but Brook was back on the backfoot, playing late, and the rearfoot strike returned, another boundary was the result.

By mustering his century, Brooks had encapsulated his entire innings; He keeps runs flowing yet solid on defense.

It was the kind of innings he might have struggled with a few years ago. Yes, the attacking instincts were always there, but the defense, by their own admission, wasn’t.

Brook, who was moving up and down batting order for Yorkshire in the County Championship, was struggling for runs as well as with his confidence when he approached former First Martin Speight, the former Sussex and Durham player who now plays for cricket in Sedbergh is in charge of the school. Speight helped Brook introduce a trigger motion that would be key to making him a more rounded hitter.

“It was my idea but yeah he’s helped me massively the whole way,” Brooke said after scoring 140 of 170 balls for England Lions against South Africa.

“We spent hours and hours working on it and yes it has been outstanding to me and long may it continue.

“I used to stand still. So if you’re watching, I’m moving back and forth a bit, but I tend to back up and then try to bring all my weight forward. I’d say it’s a rhythm thing, but I’m doing it early.

“When I was younger I was always looking for some kind of movement because I was standing still, not moving my feet and then the ball would come down and I would move.

“I started triggering to try and get my balance in the right position in my head so I could play the ball as late as possible, whether it’s attacking or defending.

“I’ve always had this natural ability to score runs. So if I get a bad ball, I could always hit it with four of us. But I never had the defense I was supposed to have that I have now. When I was younger I was trying to get out of there, trying to hit the good ball for four and I got out in the end. Now when I get a good ball I feel like I’m in a good position, my head is in the right place to be able to defend and save it.”

Brook is widely regarded as the next cab on the hit list for England and is in the South Africa Series squad, but it’s no easy feat for a Test team who are in high demand with four home wins this summer, thanks in no small part to some batters in frenzy hot mold.

If anyone in England’s top 6 could be considered vulnerable it would most likely be Zak Crawley. The opener has only made it to double figures three times in the eight innings he played this summer, with a top score of 46 in the second innings against India at Headingley.

And while Brook prefers to bat in middle order, he believes he now has the game to open for England.

“To be honest, I feel like I’d do a hitting job anywhere,” Brooke said when asked about his preferred hitting position. “And if I get an opportunity to play Test cricket and open batting then obviously I will take it.

“But I like hitting five. You can come off the field, I played a lot of overs this year too so after 120, 130 overs on the field it’s quite nice to just come in, take off your cue and chill a bit.

“That’s what I like about No. 5. If you talked to other people about hitting No. 5, they’d probably say, ‘I don’t like it because I like to get out right away.’ But no, I like to come in and chill a bit.”

Brooks’ description of himself as an extremely relaxed character in the dressing room contrasts with his proactive nature at the crease.

It also points to a player whose technical improvements have given him a relaxed confidence and maturity that has come from dealing with the issues that troubled his district-level hitting.

Brook admitted he struggled in 2018 as he played 12 games for Yorkshire, opening batting three times, coming in three on the first drop and batting four in 5th place. He was also unsettled in Yorkshire’s 2019 lineup, opening five times and batting at No. 5 six times.

“You never know when your last game is going to be,” Brook said of those seasons. “When I opened up batting I think I only had four bad games and as the player that I was always naturally trying to score and hit the gaps and whatever if one lines or swings and I nod it, then I’m out.

“It was a great experience for me to learn that at such a young age and so I said I think I would be doing a much better job now opening up batting after that experience.

“It was tough, because of course you want to get off to a good start. You want to show everyone how good you are.

“But years later you realize how important those years were probably to your career and yes it was a great experience for me and learning, those tough times because when the good times come it’s really nice.”

The good times have certainly come this year, with an international T20 debut in the Caribbean that came without much warning when Eoin Morgan failed a last-minute fitness test, followed by an outstanding run for Yorkshire in the Championship; In 12 innings, Brook went over 50 nine times, including three centuries and a high score of 194.

Brook Style off batting seems destined to rejuvenate English Test cricket under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum and while he’s clearly enjoyed his week with the Lions he’s just as hungry for higher honours.

“Absolutely. And not just getting a chance at a game, but a chance at a few,” Brooke said. “Obviously I want that to happen, but would it have been last year or the year before when we were in the COVID – Blisters and I wasn’t allowed to go back to play for Yorkshire or the Northern Superchargers, then I might have struggled a little bit.

“But being able to refill by playing is fine. If I had been in a bubble with drinks for two months it would have been tough.

An exciting and prolific white ball batter, the 23-year-old has had a taste of the overseas home circuit, having played for Hobart Hurricanes in the BBL and Lahore Qalanders in the PSL.

But while it’s becoming increasingly difficult for players to fully commit to all three formats at the highest level, Brook wants to keep his options open while expressing his preference for the longest format.

“I’m only 23 and was selected in all three formats this summer, so I still see myself as a three-format player. Whether that happens or not is out of my hands,” Brook said.

“For me, Test cricket is still the pinnacle. I think it’s the best format, I think it’s the best competition in the world. I think it’s the best standard. You play against the best bowlers, the best batsmen in the world. Everyone still aspires to play Test cricket.

“But on the other hand, I can understand why people don’t want to play red ball. There’s a lot of money to be made. There are now competitions throughout the year. It only takes two hours, two and a half hours to play the game, you don’t play for 120 overs. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love T20. But yes, I still try to play Test cricket.

Perhaps Brooks’ love of long format roots lie in his earliest memories of watching the game. His grandmother, Pauline, lived right next to Burley at Wharfedale Cricket Club in Ilkley, and Brook watched his father and uncles play every week “since I was zero,” he says with a laugh.

“I still go down and check out this club sometimes now,” Brook said.

“Everything comes from my grandma who lived right next to the floor. You just go into the garden and you’re really on the field. So I would go to the cricket field with my buddies and when I finished school I would go to the nets with my grandpa and dad. It was all right on my doorstep.”

Pauline was in the Caribbean to watch Brook make his England debut, although his admission was so last minute that she didn’t realize he was playing until she finally spotted him without a bib, but she too clearly prefers red ball cricket.

“We played the T20 finals and she watched my uncles play for Burley, so obviously she prefers to watch them than to watch me on a pretty big stage,” laughed Brook.

“She’s slipping down the ticket rankings. I already told her that. She does it all the time. If it’s a Saturday, she doesn’t have a chance to come to me.”

But if one thing could lure Brooks grandma away from Burley at Warfedale on a Saturday, it would certainly be her grandson making his Test debut for England.

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