Australia’s chances of retaining the Ashes in England will be hard enough having to contend with familiar foes like Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Joe Root and Ben Stokes.
And now they will also have to contend with a batter they’ve never faced who has been tearing up the record books in his first nine Tests.
Harry Brook obliterated New Zealand in Wellington on Friday to smash 184 not out from just 169 deliveries despite coming to the wicket with England precariously placed at 3-21 on a seaming wicket with a healthy tinge of green.
The find of the Bazball revolution, the 24-year-old Yorkshireman in the process became the first batter in cricket history to score 800 runs within their first nine Test innings, taking the record from Indian shooting star Vinod Kambli, who smacked 798 in the 1993 but did not enjoy a lengthy career.
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And Brook’s runs came off just 803 deliveries.
Harry Brook celebrates his century in Wellington. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
He has not only been incredibly efficient, he’s scored at basically a run a ball to typify the ultra-attacking mindset that new coach Brendon McCullum has instilled in what had been an insipid English line-up.
Heading into day two of the second Test on the tour of the Shaky Isles, he and Joe Root (101 not out) will resume at 3-315.
That’s not a bad first-day score, particularly when only 65 overs were possible due to the Wellington weather.
Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar (912) and the greatest cricketer of all, Sir Donald Bradman (862), are the only two players who have accumulated more runs in their first six Tests. Who’s to say he won’t rack up the 101 runs required to take that record too, either with a gigantic first innings score or another walk in the park if the tourists have to bat again in this match.
His average now stands at a Bradmanesque 100.87 while his strike rate of 99.38 is also astounding for the former England under-19 captain who was fast-tracked into first-class cricket at 18 but struggled in his first few seasons on the county scene.
Brook’s Test strike rate is actually higher than the 98.95 he achieved from his first three ODIs for England.
He didn’t just bludgeon the Black Caps attack, he built his innings with the skill of a veteran.
Brook went to lunch unbeaten on 51 from 52 deliveries which allowed Root to settle in at a much more sedate pace as he compiled his first Test ton since last July.
In the second session, Brook scurried along to his century from 107 balls before opening the shoulders and sending an attack containing Tim Southee and Neil Wagner to all parts of the Basin Reserve.
For the second straight Test he unfurled a sublime six down the ground with an off-drive of exquisite timing.
It was reminiscent of a Damien Martyn cover drive in all its glory – all technique and timing with the ball sailing into the distance as the batter held the pose.
And then he produced a cover drive which Martyn would have been proud to call his own.
Brook also mixed in T20-style ramp shots as well as out-and-out disdain, stepping to leg to give himself the room to muscle Wagner over the midwicket boundary. This is the same Wagner who gave the world’s best modern-day batter Steve Smith plenty of headaches with his hostile pace bowling.
He rated this innings ahead of the three tons he amassed on the tour of Pakistan – 153, 108 and 111 – because of the movement off the pitch.
“The hardest part about batting is the first 20 balls. If you get through that, it gradually starts to get easier,” he said in the news conference after day one.
“The ones in Pakistan were amazing and good fun, but they were all very flat pitches. Today wasn’t a flat pitch. It’s a good cricket wicket, but not a flat pitch where you can smack it everywhere.”
Brook’s phenomenal start to his Test career, batting at No.5, has raised questions about where Jonny Bairstow will slot into the line-up when he returns from his broken leg.
With Stokes a lock at six and Root ensconced at four, Bairstow could be brought back at first drop for Ollie Pope or as an opener, as he’s done in white-ball cricket, alongside Ben Duckett with Zak Crawley way too inconsistent.
Australia have been at pains to say they are not focused on the Ashes at the moment and are fixated on rebounding in the final two Tests of the Indian tour, which is fair enough because the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is out of reach, a 4-0 whitewash is looking likely and their World Test Championship final berth is in peril.
But the meteoric rise of Brook is another reason why England have become favourites to retain the Ashes when the series gets under way in June.
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