Born in Keighley, Yorkshire, but made in the Lahore Qalanders, Harry Brook has credited his time in the Pakistan Super League for supercharging the start of his Test career.
Brook’s tour of Pakistan has been superlative. Two centuries in two matches, as well as an 87 has made him the top scorer of the series by almost 100 runs and led to his captain Ben Stokes tentatively comparing the 23-year-old to Virat Kohli.
“He’s one of those rare players,” Stokes said of Brook immediately after the game in Multan, “that you look across all formats and you can just see him being successful everywhere.
“It’s a massive shout, but Virat Kohli is one of those guys where his technique is just so simple and works everywhere. The pressure that he puts back onto the opposition is exactly what we’re about.”
Brook is more modest about the start of his career, which is only three Tests into its infancy. He debuted in the final Test of the summer against South Africa before England’s tour of Pakistan was his first away trip with the Test squad. It wasn't, however, his first tour of Pakistan.
“I think I’m quite lucky,” said Brook. “The fact that I’m playing in Pakistan, obviously I’ve had a bit of success here this year with the PSL and then the T20 series with England, so I kind of knew what I was expecting before coming out here. I’ve faced all of the bowlers - well, most of the bowlers – and I knew what the wickets were like so I’m very fortunate and lucky to start my career out here and start off like I have done.”
Earlier this year Brook scored a headline-making 48-ball century for Lahore Qalanders before he also was part of England’s seven-match T20I tour to the country. He is a popular and well-known figure with the locals, with chants of “Harry, Harry, Harry” heard from the stands in Multan when the batter was stationed on the boundary edge.
Modest or otherwise, Brook’s inclusion in this series is a happy accident for England after he only made the team due to an injury to Jonny Bairstow.
However, such is Brook’s success that he has made himself undroppable and has given England the type of headache you’d assume someone has the morning after they won the lottery the night before. A short-term inconvenience with the promise of long-term wealth.
"I slot into this team fairly well with the way I’ve played,” said Brook. “I’m generally quite an aggressive player who always looks to score and put the bowler under pressure, so it suits my natural game."
Whereas the likes of Kevin Pietersen started their career at a time when T20 was burgeoning and would go on to excel in all formats, Brook is, arguably, the first England cricketer to be oven-ready against whatever colour ball he is faced with.
At 23, he is already a T20 World Cup winner and also only the second player, after Alastair Cook (who is now named Sir), to have scored two Test centuries away from home before their 24th birthday.
“If you look at all of my hundreds in county cricket or anywhere, my celebrations are not very big,” Brook said after the Multan Test. “I’m not one for jumping around.”
It is a summation of a player who expects, rather than hopes, to score hundreds. And big ones at that. His mindset has a touch of genius about it where the extraordinary to the rest of us is mundane to him. He has spoken in the past of feeling pressure but not nerves and in an interview with Wisden Cricket Monthly said that the method involved in scooping 90mph into the stands was “pretty self-explanatory.”
Nevertheless, even by Brook’s high standards, England’s achievement in Pakistan has been second to none.
“To win out here in the first two Tests is unbelievable. Before coming out here I didn’t think we’d do that, no chance. Having experience of the pitches here before, I knew how flat they were really. To somehow force a victory out of both games was unbelievable captaincy and skill level from everybody.”
