Harry Brook has developed as a consistent performer for England in the last year, and the right-hander continued to impress on Day 1 of the second Test against New Zealand. By the time rain came to New Zealand’s rescue, Brook had already scored an unbeaten 184 off 169 balls. With this performance, the England youngster became the first batsman in history to score 800 runs in just nine Test innings.
Before, India’s Vinod Kambli (798) held the record for most runs after nine Test innings, but Brook increased his total to 807 on Friday. He also surpassed superstars such as Herbert Sutcliffe (780 runs in nine innings) and Sunil Gavaskar (778 runs) to achieve a significant milestone.
The 24-year-old came to the crease with England suffering at 21-3 after New Zealand’s Matt Henry and skipper Tim Southee easily destroyed England’s top order of Zak Crawley (two), Ben Duckett (nine), and Ollie Pope (nine) (10) with, all-rounder Michael Bracewell taking two excellent catches in the slips to eliminate Pope and Duckett. But, it was Brook who stole the show, raising his Test average to well over 100 in only his sixth match.
Brook was named player of the match in the first Test after scoring back-to-back half-centuries to lead England to a 267-run victory. He added to his fantastic start to his England Test career with a superb unbroken knock that included 24 fours and sixes, and with root by his side he helped England recover from a wobbly start to the innings
England have now won 10 of the last 11 test matches under the aggressive style of their head coach Brendon McCullum which is often dubbed as ‘Bazzball’. Brook who’s yet to score a double ton in first class cricket, shared about his motivation to surpass his father’s(David Brook) highest score of 210 in club cricket.
“My dad’s highest score is 210, and my highest [first-class] score is 194. So that’s in the back of my mind at the minute. But obviously [I] need to face the first ball tomorrow, which is the main thing.”
