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English batter Harry Brook in action during Day 3 of ENG vs IND 1st Test in Leeds. (REUTERS)
Despite conceding 471 runs in the first innings of the first Test against India at Headingley, England dragged themselves back into the contest, first riding on vice-captain Ollie Pope’s hundred on Day 2, and then reaping the dividends of the quickfire, counterattacking 122-ball 99 from Harry Brook on Day 3.
After the end of day’s play, Pope gushed over his teammate’s exploits and wished to underline just how skilful an innings of that level of strokemaking needs to be against high-quality bowling.
“Everyone knows what a fantastic player Harry is, and I think being able to put really skilled bowlers under that much pressure shows exactly the skills he has got,” he was quoted as saying by The Guardian. “But it is not just slugging, it is very well thought out.”
Pope’s innings may have given England a foothold in the contest, but he said it was Brook’s efforts that “flipped the game.” England ended their innings just six runs short of India’s total, and then took two wickets for 90 runs against the visiting side by the end of Day 3, leaving the match impossible to call going into Day 4 on Monday.
“(Brook has got) the ability to kind of flip a game – we were saying: ‘Oof, if he bats for another hour here we could be in an amazing position.’ That just shows the kind of skill he’s got, and power. It was unbelievably skilled,” the vice captain said.
Brook’s innings came to an end inopportunely on 99 after the 26-year-old hooked a bouncer from Prasidh Krishna, in the hopes of sending the ball into the crowd, straight to the fielder at deep backward square leg. But Pope dismissed the error as merely a natural part of his teammate’s style of play.
“He was pretty gutted to get out but he plays that shot pretty well,” Pope said. “I think he’d look to either keep it down or hit it for six next time.”
English (US) ·