England got a bit of grief in India this year when Ben Duckett suggested their aggressive style may have influenced Yashasvi Jaiswal’s hot streak. Harry Brook was wise enough not to go there again this week but there was still an element of game recognises game while taking in Adelaide’s day‑night Test from afar.
As they galloped to their three‑day win in Wellington – and a series victory against New Zealand with one Test to play – a number of England’s players spent their evenings watching Australia level the Border-Gavaskar series at 1-1. The Ashes are less than a year away and the two sides are inevitably tracking each other’s form (even if the pink-ball nature of Australia’s win in Adelaide makes their true line harder to gauge).
The moment that caught Brook’s eye, though, was in fact a spot of Indian tamasha. “I don’t know if you saw it,” Brook said, during a chat about his approach out in the middle. “But Rishabh Pant running down the pitch first ball [and swatting Scott Boland over extra cover for four] – to have that sort of courage to get off the mark first ball is something that we’ve done exceptionally well over the last couple of years.
“We say it all the time. We are out there to score runs. We are not there to survive. Sometimes you have just got to go out of your comfort zone and have the courage to run down the track or whatever. If you look at the field and think there is a massive gap there, [you think] ‘let’s just try hit it there’. There is less risk of getting out.”
Though his innings and India’s match fizzled out on the third day, it was a pretty audacious move from Pant, not least while his team were teetering under lights. But perhaps in time it will become less so. Batters are increasingly seeing this approach as the percentage option when quicks are banging out a length in helpful conditions.
See also Brook 24 hours earlier on that bowler-friendly first morning at the Basin Reserve. With England four wickets down and just 10 to his name, he similarly went all Strictly with the footwork and smoked Nathan Smith over extra cover, and out of the ground, for six. His match-defining 123 from 115 balls had more highlights than a Bucks Fizz reunion but that shot seemed to encapsulate it more than any other.
“It was probably my favourite century so far,” said Brook, who sat out the final day of England’s 323‑run win with a sore ankle but expects to be fit for the third Test in Hamilton. “My best form of defence was attacking. I got them off the lines and lengths that they wanted to bowl, and took them away from the stumps. So I was happy with that.”
Like Pant, Brook has a 360‑degree power game, remarkable hand-eye coordination and, more broadly, appears unencumbered by a sport that leans heavily into its history and the way things have always been done. He now has 2,280 runs at 61.62 from his first 23 Tests, with the strike-rate also bulging at 88.57. It has been some start.
The 25-year-old Brook, however, is yet to tour India or Australia and, understandably, is wary of getting too cocky in a sport that has a tendency to bite backsides. “Those stats can soon come soaring down,” he said. “I’m just trying to keep on getting as good as I can, working hard in the nets and improving in areas that are uncomfortable.”
Joe Root had no such qualms, happily declaring his fellow Yorkshireman to be “by far and away the best player in the world at the minute” despite personally occupying the No 1 spot in the Test batting rankings. Coming the day Root discovered he had been nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and after compiling his 36th Test century and sixth this year, it was typically self‑effacing stuff.
“[Brook] can absorb pressure and apply it,” Root said. “He can whack you over your head for six. He can scoop you over his head for six. He can smack spin. He can smack seam. He’s just so hard to bowl to.”
Top of the Test rankings is a bit like a Spoty nomination – a nice talking point for some, if not exactly why sportspeople do what they do. Although the fact it has come Root’s way in a non-Ashes year – an Olympic one too – is not insignificant. Describing himself as “honoured to even be considered”, Root joked that the freephone nature of the vote may see supporters back in Yorkshire boost his share on 17 December.
The turnout for the third Test at Seddon Park that starts on Saturday (10pm Friday in the UK) remains to be seen, with New Zealand slightly reeling from a 2-0 deficit that has followed so soon after their 3-0 triumph in India. The cricketing public here tend not to rush to the pitchforks but a sense of bewilderment pervades.
One selection issue appears to have been resolved at least, with Devon Conway, averaging 5.5 in the series, missing the finale due to attending the birth of his first child. Will Young, player of the series in India, is likely to step up, even if the horse has bolted somewhat. The other regards Tim Southee, and whether sentimentality should see him selected for what is already confirmed to be his final Test.
Ian Smith, the former New Zealand wicketkeeper and a hugely respected voice, is among those who believe Southee should miss out after 15 wickets at 61 from 10 outings this year. But Gary Stead, the current head coach, stressed on Monday that all their bowlers suffered in Wellington and that “anyone in the world” would have struggled to contain the form-rich Brook. In that respect it is hard to disagree.
