One short but no picnic for India: How Brook’s onslaught changed the Test

One short but no picnic for India: How Brook’s onslaught changed the Test

Harry Brook does not really celebrate centuries. He has always considered that a bit uncouth. Though only 26, he’s an old soul, very much from the “but that’s your job” school of thought when it comes to lauding your output as a batter.

Even so, it was hardly surprising that his reaction to missing out on a ninth Test century revealed a cocktail of emotions. Annoyance, as he gave himself a facepalm, head tilted to the sky. Anger, revealed by the dramatic arch of the back, as if about to spit an expletive to the moon.

The milestone would have been nice, of course, particularly as one of Yorkshire’s own, and given that he had probably deserved one in front of his home ground when he all but took England home here in the 2023 Ashes. But most of all, you felt his reaction reflected the dereliction of duty he felt, with this current match situation very much in the balance.

England were still 73 behind, but now with only three wickets left to make up that difference. Such is the talent in his hands and feet that many in the England dressing room were quietly wondering about the healthy position they might be in if he were to go on for another hour. But then Prasidh Krishna dug one in short, and the narrative changed.

Brook’s periscope pull felt straight to Shardul Thakur at deep fine leg. It was an ego pull compared to the idiotic one he had played to midwicket in the last over of day two when on nought, only for it to be scrubbed from the records after Jasprit Bumrah had overstepped. But thankfully for England, this dismissal did not derail the momentum of their innings, as they finished just six behind India’s 471.

The novelty of getting out on 99 might grow on Brook, particularly as it is the first time he has been dismissed in the nineties across 322 professional innings to date. His tenth century across formats for England might not have drawn more than a cursory removal of the helmet and raise of the bat, but Headingley’s congregation had been waiting patiently for their boy’s moment. They had to make do with some cursory applause instead as he slumped off, now aiming any expletives at the ground beneath his feet.

Brook’s innings was a helix of brilliance and nonsense, a contradiction of dominant gallops out of the crease and anxiety-reducing risks that contributed to the 13 boundaries that littered his day-three work. It was good without being great, but all the more memorable for the bad bits.

He had every right to feel aggrieved at it being cut short, but Brook already owed a debt of gratitude to Bumrah’s overstep, without which it would have ended after nine deliveries. He breathed again after 62 balls, when a sliver of an edge off Ravindra Jadeja was missed by Rishabh Pant behind the stumps.

Brook’s control percentage across his eventual 112-ball innings was 80 percent, which seems high until you accept that he was technically in control of the shot that brought about his dismissal – ironically, he had rolled his wrists on the shot to keep it down, when the better option might have been to launch it skywards and clear the stands. The deliberate wristy flick off his 103rd ball that broke through Yashasvi Jaiswal’s hands at fourth slip was also executed “perfectly”.

Bumrah was the unfortunate bowler for that one. He had sent Brook to bed last night with the stench of leather in his nostrils having fizzed a warning shot of what was to come on Sunday. Brook, though, came with a clear focus – he was not going to get got, he was going to go get.

Krishna was pumped square, then dumped into the stands at straight midwicket at the end of the very first over. “Phwoar, where did that come from?” Ollie Pope later revealed he had said to himself, while watching from the other end.

When Bumrah showed up again, Brook had two sighters before jumping out of his stance to land the first blow of this round. Having started again on 0 off 12, his first 10 balls of the third morning had brought him back up to speed with 19 runs.

The calculation of his second new ball assault was just that. Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj were given the honours, and both were treated accordingly. Well, Bumrah was at least; Brook defended a few, found the odd single, and survived the error of the Jaiswal drop. Siraj, however, suddenly found himself embroiled in a ruckus.

A dismissive slap through mid-on, a lash to point and an attempted charge-and-slap that only brought two was followed up with a hard-length ball, a stare and a few words for Brook. It’s worth noting Brook is not much of a talker. “He doesn’t want to chat,” revealed Pope of Brook’s habits out in the middle, “he might want to know which way it’s swinging, but that’s it.” And yet his response was profound, thumping a ball from outside off so deep into the long-on stand that even Siraj was lost for words. That took him to 91, rounding on the inevitable century that never materialised.

It is worth isolating Brook versus Bumrah, even if the bout did not end up affecting the scoreboard meaningfully, in either the runs or wickets column.

The catch off a no-ball and that drop off a legal ball came after 28 deliveries in all, with just 11 runs scored. But one of those deliveries – that charging four at the start of the day, Brook’s only boundary off Bumrah – was perhaps his most meaningful. “If I can do this to you,” Brook seemed to be saying, “imagine what I can do to the rest of your attack?”

Brook didn’t do it again, but the message had been heard loud and clear. Even by Bumrah.

“He makes you think as well,” Bumrah said at the close. “You know he can play an aggressive shot and sometimes he can shut shop as well and try to negate if somebody’s bowling a good spell. So yeah, he played really well.

“I think fate had decided 99 for him!” he added. “He assessed conditions and, you know, he fancies his game and plays an aggressive style of cricket.”

If all that sounds familiar, it is because England’s batters, their captain and their head coach constantly talk about doing exactly that. Rarely, though, do they get it right. And even here, Brook did not.

But for a bowler of Bumrah’s ilk to notice the intent, even amid the flaws, speaks to a very real truth. Joe Root is the sole great, Ben Duckett the most expressive and Ollie Pope their only centurion in this Test so far, but Harry Brook is the totem of this English batting group.