Brook barrage puts England on top but concerns about his recklessness remain
Brendon McCullum was caught on camera with his head buried in a crossword puzzle while it rained at the SCG, and solving those clues must have seemed easier than the problems with England’s batting.
No 1 is what to do about Harry Brook? No 2 is working out why England’s top three has collapsed so badly, with even the one usually consistent figure, Ben Duckett, badly misfiring.
Brook is undoubtedly a world-class talent, who has scored 3,130 runs in 35 Tests with 10 hundreds, including the first triple century by an Englishman for 30 years.
Alongside Joe Root he combined for England’s highest stand of the series, an unbeaten 154, before bad light and rain curtailed play just before tea on day one of this final Test. Brook’s unbeaten 78 and Root’s 72 repaired England from 57 for three – losing three for 22 – to a respectable 211 for three at the close, and a chance to build something meaningful, both personally and collectively, on day two.
Boos rang out at the SCG as play was abandoned, after half an hour of dry weather and the bluest skies for several hours.
It does at least guarantee play beyond day two – surely – but England were building nicely before the rain fell and now face having to restart and regain that momentum. Australia’s decision to pick an all-seam attack at the SCG for the first time since 1888 felt like one of the pillars of their cricket falling and they did look like a samey, predictable bowling line-up as Root and Brook bedded in.
Spin bowling has long been an English issue, and now the Australia of Richie Benaud, Shane Warne and Nathan Lyon appear to be heading the same way. The hosts comfortably won the Ashes in 11 days, but they have problems too.
A hundred for Brook – what would be his first in an Ashes Test – would lift a underwhelming series for the vice-captain, one which has been emblematic of England’s tour. He has not fulfilled his talent when it matters most for someone who averages 55, and that reflects the Bazball Ashes trip as a whole.
This innings was a smattering of the breathless and brainless and followed Duckett starting well, only to fall for 27 – his career average dipping below 40 for the first time since his Test career restarted nearly three years ago.
Both have breathed in the Bazball fumes more than most. Duckett famously never leaves and Brook will take on any shot, any angle, any bowler, on any pitch at any stage of the game. It is a derring-do that makes him arguably the most watchable batsman in the world. But he is reaching the point in his career when he needs to show he has more than one gear if he is to win matches for England.
Teams know how to needle away at Brook’s ego and patience. You could almost hear Sir Geoffrey Boycott throwing his tea cup at the television as one of his Yorkshire successors several times flirted with danger in taking on the short ball when the leg-side trap was set.
No coach, particularly McCullum, would want to temper Brook’s flair and aggression. But when he is pulling a short ball and a top edge lands between three fielders, as it did off Mitchell Starc when he was on 45 and well set, it displays an irresponsibility that is reckless from the team’s vice-captain.
Two balls from Cameron Green encapsulated the issue. One bouncer into the arm pit was flapped at and edged down to fine leg for a single. The next, another short one, was whipped majestically for six and, going with the wind, landed 20 rows back over the very same fielder.
This is why teams go to the short ball against Brook; starting from the Lord’s Ashes Tests of 2023. His habit of hitting from low to high increases the chance of taking a wicket. “I could have played it better at times. It didn’t feel amazing today but on another day it’ll feel a hell of a lot better, so happy that I just got through it,” Brook said.
“I’ve just got to be a little bit more patient and take my ones here and there, and thankfully I did that today. I did that in a couple of the other innings as well. So, that’s something I’ve got to think about going forward and put that into my game and look to try and be a little bit patient at times, whether that’s taking my ones instead of trying to hit boundaries, then so be it. But it’s obviously not worked this series because I haven’t scored as many runs as I’d have liked.”
Those are encouraging words if he acts on them, and he if plays in a set-up that promotes that kind of sensible play. Brook has had a better series than Duckett whose highest score is the 34 he hacked in the Melbourne run chase. The opener has been one of the most consistent players of the Bazball era, but the bounce in Australia, and taking the bait outside off stump, has cost him.
Here, Australia did it again. Duckett whipped two lovely fours off his legs and slapped another through the covers, but then prodded half-heartedly at a wider ball from Starc and nicked off. Most of his dismissals have been down to half-hearted prods – he has died wondering, the Ashes pressure scrambling the mind. Maybe Duckett is the one who should just go harder and retain the aggression.
His wicket was the start of a collapse. Zak Crawley was pinned leg before to the fourth ball of Michael Neser’s second spell and Jacob Bethell edged behind Scott Boland coming over the wicket and nibbling one away.
It threatened to ruin Stokes’s decision to bat first on a good pitch that calls for a decent first-innings total, but Brook and Root provided a wicketless session after lunch and even with a couple of heart-stopping top edges, that was progress.
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