From young to experienced, many are set to play their first T20 World Cup when action gets underway Down Under. Before the first ball is bowled, Firstpost.com brings to you FirstCup – a special series where we chart journeys of T20 World Cup debutants.
Having risen up the ranks in England’s T20I side in a year that saw the team go through a transition across formats, Harry Brook has made himself something of a regular in the shortest format of the game in what has been a breakthrough year.
And in a couple of weeks’ time, Brook has the chance to take his cricketing career to a whole new level at the T20 World Cup Down Under, his maiden appearance in a global event.
From holding the bat wrong as a young lad and dealing with weight problems during his teenage years to staring at the prospect of representing his country in a showpiece event, Brook certainly has come a long way and has gone through a journey that will inspire many others.
Early years
Cricket ran in the Brook family across generations. Born in Keighley, Yorkshire not far from Leeds, his grandfather Tony, father David and uncles Richard and Nick all played at the nearby Burley-in-Wharfedale Cricket Club.
It was at this very club where Harry was first introduced to the sport, spending time in the nets with his family members. And the club coach couldn’t help but notice his ‘marvellous eye’ and his hitting abilities.
“The young Harry Brook, two or three years of age, held the bat with the bottom hand at the top and vice versa. Despite that, he still hit the ball. He had a marvellous eye and appetite for hitting balls,” Cooper told BBC.
Brook’s cricketing skills would develop further under the tutelage of former Durham and Sussex wicketkeeper-batter Martin Speight, who had taken up the role of coaching young kids at the Sedbergh School — a residential school in the northern part of the country where Brook had enrolled on a scholarship.
Much like Cooper, Speight too had noticed signs of a future England cricketing star in the making in Brook’s early years.
“He trains incredibly hard and only two months ago, in an article for a national magazine, I named him as one to watch. He’s the most mentally strong young batsman I’ve come across for a long time,” Speight, who also represented Wellington in New Zealand, said according to cricketyorkshire.com.
Yorkshire breakthrough and beyond
Brook would chart a rapid rise across various age levels in Yorkshire during his teenage years.
It wouldn’t take him long to kickstart his cricketing career; Brook would make his First-Class debut for the Yorkshire senior men’s team in a match against Pakistan A while he was still in school, where he would get bowled for a golden duck by speedster Mir Hamza in a drawn match. A year later, he would make his mark in the County Championship, his first appearance in the prestigious First-Class tournament coming against Middlesex at Lord’s.
Brook’s leadership skills were put to the test during the U-19 World Cup in New Zealand in 2018, where England topped their group before bowing out with a defeat to Australia in the quarter-finals.
Read: Captain Brook stars in England’s comprehensive win over Bangladesh
Brook was thoroughly impressive with the bat in that tournament as he finished the highest run-scorer for his side, collecting 239 runs at an average of 119.50 with a century and two fifties.
Baristow injury and Test debut
Brook had become a hot property in T20 leagues across the world after a stellar run for the Northern Superchargers in the inaugural season of The Hundred, where he would finish the leading run scorer for his side (189 runs; average: 47.25; SR: 153.65). Success at The Hundred would then lead to contracts in other parts of the world as Brook would later sign with Hobart Hurricanes and Lahore Qalandars in the Big Bash League and Pakistan Super League respectively.
His international debut would follow not too long after The Hundred during the tour of the Caribbean earlier this year where he was one of three debutants alongside George Garton and Phil Salt.
However, one of the biggest moments in his cricketing career would come much later that year, during the Test series against South Africa when he would be included as the injured Jonny Bairstow’s replacement in the deciding Test at The Oval. Making his Test debut in the Stokes-McCullum era of English cricket came on the back of an outstanding County run where he plundered 967 runs in eight appearances at an average of 107.44.
Another defining moment in Brook’s career would come in the historic tour of Pakistan last month — England’s first visit to the country in 17 years — where his unbeaten 81 off just 35 deliveries all but sealed his place in England’s T20 World Cup squad. Brook would produce multiple match-winning knocks in what proved to be an outstanding tour for him, where he finished the leading run-scorer for his side (238 runs; ave: 79.33; SR: 163.01) and was adjudged the ‘Player of the Series’.
Brook will hope to carry the momentum from the fruitful Pakistan trip over to what will surely be the biggest test of his international cricketing career that is still in its infancy. The young Yorkshireman has been marked for great accomplishments down the road and he will be hoping to make T20 World Cup a watershed moment.
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