If there were any doubt before this morning’s events in Rawalpindi, there can be none now. Harry Brook is the best all-format batsman in the world, and few bowlers appear to know how to handle him.
On Tuesday, it’s true, he was outfoxed by Pakistan left-arm spinner Arafat Minhas, bowled for five by a delivery that gripped and turned, before defeating him on the back foot. There have been moments this year when Brook has felt like his own worst enemy, apparently heading for a century before doing something daft.
But it’s getting to the stage where – like Minhas – the bowler has to produce something special to keep him quiet. If not, he’s going to cause you a world of pain.
The raw numbers of today’s demolition of Sri Lanka are eye-watering in their own right.
A double-century off 114 balls was the quickest in ODI history, beating by three balls Shubman Gill’s blitz for India against West Indies in Guwahati as recently as three weeks ago. His eventual 202 was the highest ODI score in an England shirt, surpassing Ben Stokes’s 182 against New Zealand at The Oval in 2023. And he helped his side to the highest total in Pakistan, beating Pakistan’s own 375 for three against Zimbabwe at Lahore in 2015.
Brook also became only the second player, after West Indies’ Chris Gayle, to possess a triple-century in Tests, a double-century in ODIs, and a single century in T20s.
Harry Brook walks off after his electrifying 202 against Sri Lanka – the first Englishman ever to score a double century in ODI cricket
What took the innings to another level was its 360-degree nonchalance, the idea that no ball was safe, no area of the ground out of reach
But what took the innings to another level was its 360-degree nonchalance, the idea that no ball was safe, no area of the ground out of reach. When Sri Lanka’s bowlers dropped short, he pulled. When they pitched it up, he either scooped, reverse-scooped or went over extra cover.
The eighth of his 10 sixes, an open-faced slice over backward point off Eshan Malinga, was simply ridiculous. Only the pinpoint yorker had any chance of slowing the carnage, and even then you couldn’t be sure.
As Nasser Hussain put it on Sky Sports: ‘That was an innings touched by genius.’ Kumar Sangakkara spoke of ‘batting Nirvana’. The superlatives are drying up.
Brook is making a case that is hard to answer. In Tests, he averages 53, with a strike rate – 86 – that would once have been considered a triumph in one-day cricket. In T20, he averages a very good 36 with a pulsating strike rate of 164; in February, his 50-ball century against Pakistan in Pallekele was arguably the innings of the World Cup.
And now, in ODIs, he is averaging 41 with a strike rate of almost 110. The sense in all three formats, and especially the longer two, is that there is room for improvement.
Who else can challenge him as the world’s best all-format player? Gill himself is in the argument, though he hasn’t played a T20 for India since last December. Then there’s Australia’s Travis Head, who – while Brook was destroying Sri Lanka – fell for 121 as his side failed to save the second Test against South Africa in Gqeberha, losing by an innings and 31 runs to set up a series decider in Cape Town next week.
Head has played some seismic innings on the biggest stages, including 163 to help beat India in the World Test Championship final at the Oval in 2023, followed by a match-winning 137 to break Indian hearts in the World Cup final at Ahmedabad a few months later. Last winter, he tore England apart in the Ashes.
But not even he can boast Brook’s range of strokes and imagination; nor can he quite convey the same sense that, at any given moment, a perfectly respectable delivery is about to disappear to kingdom come. Head is 33 in December, and may have reached his ceiling. Brook is 27, and seems to be getting better.
Shubman Gill is one of the few players who gets close to Brook, but he hasn’t played a T20 for India since last December
Travis Head has played some phenomenal innings in the last few years (pictured at Perth in the recent Ashes) but he does not have Brook’s range of strokes or imagination
So dominant was he this morning that other innings, which might usually have grabbed the headlines, ranked only as sideshows. Tom Banton made a powerful run-a-ball 50 before picking out long-off, Joe Root moved past 8,000 ODI runs during his typically unobtrusive 69 off 66, before Will Jacks – the only England player other than Brook to clear the ropes – chipped in with a superb 66 not out off 30 balls.
None, though, could live with Brook, who didn’t allow himself a proper celebration until he lapped Janith Liyanage fine for four in the last over of the innings to bring up his 200. At the other end, Jacks seemed even more excited.
England’s 50-over cricket has been mainly in the doldrums ever since Eoin Morgan’s side lifted the 2019 World Cup. But, under Brook and Brendon McCullum, they are finding their feet.
Tuesday’s defeat by Pakistan showed they are not there yet. Yet if Brook keeps batting like this, no team will relish facing England in next year’s World Cup.
