These are the hot-take Ashes, with podcasts sprouting like heads on the Hydra, and opinions jostling for elbow room. But on one question most pundits can agree: how do you solve a problem like Harry Brook?
First at Perth, then at Brisbane, Brook’s output has mirrored England’s, his scores of 52, 0, 31 and 15 reflecting on the one hand their all-too-fleeting highs and on the other their overriding carelessness. Twice he has lost his wicket driving on the up, the stroke that is in danger of defining England’s tour.
He is both an emblem of their troubles and their likeliest means of a remarkable comeback. Above all, he is never dull. No wonder the podcasters and columnists can’t stop talking and writing about him.
Alyssa Healy, wicketkeeper for the Australian women’s team and wife of Mitchell Starc, who induced one of those loose drives from Brook at the Gabba, got stuck in on her Willow Talk podcast: ‘How about taking a little bit of load off your captain?’ she said. ‘Hi, my name’s Harry Brook, I played a shocking shot twice this Test match and I put our team under the pump unnecessarily twice.’
Geoff Boycott, meanwhile, a very different type of Yorkshireman, wrote of Brook in his newspaper column: ‘You get the feeling he is batting with a disregard for the team situation. So far the penny has not dropped, maybe it never will. I hope not, because it would be sad to watch a guy with once-in-a-lifetime talent fail to grasp that the object is using that special talent is to win.’
It felt more than symbolic that, following England’s eight-wicket defeat at Brisbane, Brook dropped from No 2 in the ICC rankings to No 4, while the steadier, less headstrong Joe Root – who, unlike Brook, adapted his game after defeat in the first Test at Perth – has remained peerless at No 1.
Brook is an emblem of England’s troubles – and their likeliest means of a remarkable comeback
Brook spent a decent chunk of England’s four-day holiday in Noosa relaxing at the bar with fast bowler Brydon Carse, as Ben Stokes’s team sought respite from a draining few weeks
Brook has been at the pinnacle himself, including making 158 against India at Edgbaston earlier in the summer, but he has never stayed at the top for long – and that must be his next challenge
Brook has been at the pinnacle himself, replacing Root when he scored 171 against New Zealand at Christchurch a year ago, and again after making 158 against India at Edgbaston in the summer. But he has never stayed top for long, and that must be his next challenge.
Of his talent, there is little doubt. He averages 55 from his 32 Tests, scored England’s first triple-century for 34 years against Pakistan at Multan, and ticked off 10 hundreds in 50 innings, a landmark achieved more quickly among England batsmen only by Herbert Sutcliffe and Denis Compton.
When Ricky Ponting bought Brook in the IPL auction two years ago in his role as head coach of Delhi Capitals, he salivated about ‘a generational type of player’. Stuart Broad, meanwhile, has suggested he ‘might just be the best batter we’ve ever produced’. These are expert witnesses, not armchair pundits. And it’s what makes his performances so far in Australia so anticlimactic.
Brook spent a decent chunk of England’s four-day holiday in Noosa, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, relaxing at the bar with fast bowler Brydon Carse, as Ben Stokes’s team sought respite from a draining few weeks. But the value of that break will, inevitably, be determined by what happens next, starting with Wednesday’s third Test in Adelaide.
Key to Brook’s chances will be his ability to learn from his mistakes. When he first came into the England team, for the deciding Test against South Africa at The Oval in 2022, Stokes half-jokingly described him as ‘a bit dumb’. When that assessment was put to Brook, he smiled. ‘I wasn’t very good at school,’ he said, ‘but my cricket brain is all right.’
And that discrepancy has formed the basis of England’s calculation. So long as Brook is making the right calls on the field, it doesn’t matter if he isn’t quoting Tolstoy. When, as Jos Buttler’s stand-in, he averaged 78 in a five-match ODI series at home to Australia in September 2024, with an astonishing strike-rate of 127, there were few doubts about his trajectory. It’s why he eventually replaced Buttler as England’s full-time white-ball captain, and later Ollie Pope as Test vice-captain.
But the jury remains out at precisely the moment many had hoped for a verdict. First came England’s ill-fated ODI series in New Zealand, a trip that was supposed to be their warm-up for the Ashes. After his side were bowled out in the first game at Mount Maunganui for 223, to which Brook contributed an outrageous 135 with 11 sixes, he responded: ‘The question I would ask is, can we probably go a little bit harder? I think so.’
In the next two games, England were dismissed for 175 and 222. The longest of their three innings, in matches designed to be 50 overs a side, was 40.2 overs. It was not a ringing endorsement of Brook’s ability to react to circumstance, supposedly one of Bazball’s central tenets.
The key to Brook’s chances to turn his series around will be his ability to learn from mistakes
As England’s vice-captain, Brook ought to be one of the first shoulders to lean on alongside Joe Root, but his lack of obvious support for Stokes is as worrying as his form with the bat
Of equal concern has been a lack of obvious support for Stokes. As vice-captain, Brook ought to be one of the first shoulders to lean on, along with Root. But Stokes finished the Brisbane Test with his instantly famous observation that ‘Australia isn’t a place for weak men’. And it is clear that, while he craves better decision-making from his team-mates with bat and ball, he also wants more help in the field.
Matt Prior, the former England wicketkeeper who was at the Gabba as a pundit for TNT and unloaded on their performance during a hard-hitting interview with Daily Mail Sport, pointed out: ‘Brook is an unbelievable player. But he has to get in the battle – not just with his batting, but in the field. He needs to create an intensity.’
Everyone is asking a lot of Brook, which – if he’s paying attention – he will regard as a compliment. Those closest to him wondered before this tour whether his first trip to Australia would be about finding his feet. But England need quicker results than that, and they need them as early as this week.