Watching Joe Root and Harry Brook batting together was like watching the master and the apprentice.
I think it has been vital for Brook at the start of his career to have Root at the other end – someone he would have admired growing up and someone he can learn a lot from.
Root has been an absolute pleasure to watch over the last 12 years, with his skill, fluency and consistency. His hunger for runs and his love for the game is what has kept him going the way he has.
That can only rub off on someone like Brook – and I think it already has. I remember being here last time in Pakistan and Brook walked past me and said: ‘I love batting, Nass.’ Your currency is getting runs and that is all Brook is interested in.
He has got everything you need. He is a ‘wow’ cricketer. He came to the crease yesterday and suddenly he was on 25 off 20 balls. In modern cricket, there are a lot of power and muscular hitters. But Brook and Root both have such joyous rhythm and flow to their batting.
Harry Brook has got everything you need as a batter, as he showed in his unbeaten 141 against Pakistan in Multan on Wednesday
He and Joe Root (right) were great – the latter became England’s all-time leading run scorer
Brook has all the requisite qualities to be a mainstay for England across all formats
Brook is such a talent against every type of bowling. His playing of spin phenomenal, in particular, the way he picks up length and his ability to play it off the front foot and back foot.
Bowlers will pitch it up and he will smack them back over their head. Then they’ll drop it half a foot shorter and he will rock back and pull it over mid-wicket for six. That’s why he’s got four hundreds in four Test matches in Pakistan.
I like his temperament and the fact that he keeps things pretty simple. He doesn’t overthink things and he doesn’t doubt himself too much. When he gets criticism, he doesn’t over-stress but he will try and improve on it.
Like any young cricketer, he has some areas that he needs to work on. Against Sri Lanka at the Oval, they bowled wide to him and he mockingly took a fifth stump guard, got a bit bored with that and then ended up chipping to extra cover. That’s an area where he could look in Root’s direction because Root is someone that never gets bored.
When Brook goes to the Ashes next year, Australia will bowl a little bit outside the off stump, because when he drives outside the off stump, he doesn’t move his left foot across to get into line.
After what happened in the Ashes last time, they will also bowl bouncers at him on the bigger grounds with men out and say, ‘Right, are you going to take it on time after time like you did at Lord’s?’ He will have to work out the percentages when three or four men are back.
But that’s for the future. At the moment, he is an absolute joy to watch and he’s going to be an integral part of English cricket in all formats. Hopefully, what Root has done over the last 12 years, Brook can carry on doing for years to come.
I don’t know how many runs he will end up getting because Test cricket is changing. There will be challenges for Brook that weren’t always there for Root, with franchises coming in for him and he will have to balance his workload. If he wants to stay fresh, he will maybe occasionally have to say no to a franchise to concentrate on Test match cricket or vice versa.
Ever since he came into the England side, the No 5 has looked perfectly suited for them
Joe Root tipped him for stardom even before he played for his country and he appears right
Brook has areas to work on – and will inevitably have slumps – but his ceiling is incredibly high
There’ll be ups and downs in his career. There will be bowlers who may work him out and who he struggles against. So it is far too early to say whether Brook will end up with the sort of statistics that Root has.
What Root has done in going past Sir Alastair Cook and now chasing down the others in front of him on the all-time list is truly phenomenal. But Brook has got all the attributes to keep moving forward and improving.
About three years ago, before Brook even played for England, I remember being at the Oval and Root said, ‘One lad we don’t talk enough about is Harry Brook. He’s going to be an absolute star.’
Root was so spot on. From the moment Brook has come into the England side, he has looked to the manner born.
