No Englishman should relish the move from India to Pakistan more than Harry Brook. The change in conditions will take Brook away from the nation that he has fared worse in to the one that has seen his very best.
Brook’s three years as an international cricketer have established him as a batsman of rare gifts. Yet he has displayed a curious propensity to oscillate between the magnificent and the mediocre. Never has this been truer than either side of the Radcliffe Line.
In September 2022, Brook arrived in Pakistan having played just five internationals. Over the seven-game T20I series, a series of dashing innings – most spectacularly, a 35-ball, unbeaten 81 in the third game – gave notice of Brook’s qualities, establishing his place at the T20 World Cup. Barely two months later, Brook then pummelled Pakistan in red-ball cricket too, plundering three centuries in consecutive Tests. Brook marked his return to Pakistan last October with 317 in Multan; half of his eight Test centuries have been in the country. In 16 international innings across formats in Pakistan, Brook averages an absurd 83.
Such brilliance has been lacking across the border. While Brook scored a century during his maiden Indian Premier League campaign, in 2023, he hit only 90 runs across his other 10 innings, ending the season with three ducks in four innings. These struggles have continued during Brook’s subsequent trips to India. In the 2023 World Cup, when he described himself as “learning on the job” in the 50-over format, Brook averaged 28.2. In eight innings across England’s recent T20 and ODI series in India, Brook mustered just 141 runs.
The chasm between Brook’s record so far in India and Pakistan embodies a career that, outside English shores, has been one of extremes. In England, Brook has been consistent but often frittered away starts: he has converted just one of his seven 50+ scores in Test cricket at home into a century.
Away from home, Brook’s Test returns have been spectacular. In 11 games, he averages 80, with seven centuries. Each of these Tests have been in either Pakistan or New Zealand, and generally played on flat wickets. In the few Tests on less benign pitches, Brook’s returns have been altogether less spectacular. When Pakistan embraced dry, turning wickets in the last two Tests in October, Brook hit 9, 16, 5 and 26, falling twice apiece to spin twins Sajid Khan and Noman Ali. In Hamilton in December, on a pitch with more bounce than in the first two Tests, Brook fell for 0 and 1, both times dismissed by Will O’Rourke’s searing pace.
In Australia, Brook has so far played only T20 matches. In 16 matches – seven in the Big Bash, and nine for England – Brook has repeatedly succumbed trying to clear the large Australian boundaries and averages just 8.07. There is considerable mitigation for this lamentable record: Brook has batted in the middle-order in each innings in that country, a notoriously volatile berth in T20, and is a far more complete player now.
Still, for all these caveats, Brook’s embryonic record in Australia is in keeping with his experience of playing overseas: he tends to flourish or flounder, with little in between. The question is whether this owes to simple randomness or particular traits in his game.
Brook’s astounding record in New Zealand and Pakistan illustrates his prowess on true wickets, when he can trust the bounce. His struggles in India and Australia have shown vulnerabilities combatting the two challenges that are reserved for batsmen in the top echelons of the game: mystery spin, especially on turning tracks, and high pace.
In the T20 series in India, Brook fell all five times to the leg-spinners Ravi Bishnoi and Varun Chakravarthy. Lacking a reliable method to accumulate, Brook resorted to attempting to clear the ropes. “Facing spin in T20 cricket is probably the hardest thing in the game,” Brook reflected. “Maybe I’ve got to rein in a little bit, but we’ll see. I think I do have a method. It’s just trying to do it consistently and more often.”
In the ODIs, India then borrowed from the template of O’Rouke against Brook. Harshit Rana snared Brook for a duck with a bouncer in Nagpur, and dismissed him in the next two ODIs too. While Brook’s high hands are considered to render him vulnerable to rapid bouncers – a flaw hardly unique to him – he has fared better against this line of attack than extreme spin. He averaged 40.3 in the 2023 Ashes, when Australia often resorted to the short ball.
Brook must now be braced for these twin methods of attack in the Champions Trophy and the looming Test series at home to India and in Australia. Whenever he walks out to bat, Brook can expect to be met by an opponent’s quickest bowler, their best spinner – or both. How he responds will go a long way to defining England’s year.
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