SRH waits for this Brook to find the IPL flow
The young England batter had arrived after his heroics in the 3-0 Test series win in Pakistan, but has struggled to get going for Sunrisers Hyderabad
Harry Brook is only one of two centurions in IPL 2023. When he blazed to an unbeaten 100 off 55 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 14, it felt as though Brook had chosen the jam-packed Eden Gardens to mark his grand arrival in the league.
The innings propelled Sunrisers Hyderabad to 228/4 – their only 200-plus total this season – and a 23-run win. In the three games prior to that evening and the four games since though, Brook’s highest score is 18. That is why his overall tally stands at 163 in eight matches, at an average of 23.28 and a strike rate of 125.38.
These unflattering numbers haven’t yet justified the hefty price tag of ₹13.25 crore Sunrisers Hyderabad shelled out for the England batter’s services. SRH's keenness to bring the best out of Brook has resulted in incessant tinkering with the batting order. After all, the 24-year-old had arrived in some pomp, after scoring centuries in each Test on the Pakistan tour in December in England’s 3-0 series sweep.
Brook began the campaign in middle-order. He batted at No. 4 in the first game against Rajasthan Royals and then at No. 5 versus Lucknow Super Giants. Against Rajasthan, Brook laboured to 13 off 21 balls before Yuzvendra Chahal got one to sneak past his bat and hit the stumps. Five days later in Lucknow, Brook tried to be more proactive by charging down the track to Ravi Bishnoi, but the leg-spinner smartly pulled back the length to get the England batter stumped.
{{/usCountry}}Brook began the campaign in middle-order. He batted at No. 4 in the first game against Rajasthan Royals and then at No. 5 versus Lucknow Super Giants. Against Rajasthan, Brook laboured to 13 off 21 balls before Yuzvendra Chahal got one to sneak past his bat and hit the stumps. Five days later in Lucknow, Brook tried to be more proactive by charging down the track to Ravi Bishnoi, but the leg-spinner smartly pulled back the length to get the England batter stumped.
{{/usCountry}}Sensing a struggle against spin in the middle overs, SRH promoted him to open, and it seemed to pay off as he hit that dazzling hundred. It was only his fifth game as an opener in 97 T20 innings, but Sunrisers may have felt that starting against pace in the powerplay will bring his strengths to the fore.
{{/usCountry}}Sensing a struggle against spin in the middle overs, SRH promoted him to open, and it seemed to pay off as he hit that dazzling hundred. It was only his fifth game as an opener in 97 T20 innings, but Sunrisers may have felt that starting against pace in the powerplay will bring his strengths to the fore.
{{/usCountry}}Strangely though, he hasn’t been at ease against pace bowlers too, undone by them in his last four innings. Twice, he has been out attempting to pull short deliveries. A fortnight ago, he was caught at cover off a top edge against Mumbai Indians left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff. At the Ferozeshah Kotla ground on Saturday, he was back at No. 5, a clear sign SRH are still struggling to figure out Brook’s best position. After Brook and Abhishek Sharma opened against CSK, Sunrisers head coach Brian Lara had said the opening combination would “continue for a period of time”.
Again moving Brook down the order on Saturday didn’t yield the desired result. On a belter of a pitch where batters had the luxury of playing through the line, Brook was out for a two-ball duck after mistiming a short ball by Mitchell Marsh to Axar Patel at midwicket.
SRH batting coach Hemang Badani has called for patience. “It’s a question of one innings. It’s easy for anyone to think he is out of form,” Badani said at the post-match press conference. “But I am a firm believer that it’s a matter of one knock. Then it all falls back into place. We’ve gone back to Harry batting at No. 5. Maybe just give him a couple of games. I genuinely believe that with time, Harry will be one of the biggest names in world cricket.”
Brook will have to clear the cobweb of doubts. “I was putting pressure on myself a little bit for the first few games,” he said after his century. “I went on to social media, people were calling me rubbish, and you start to doubt yourself a little bit.”
While the heightened scrutiny is inevitable after the buzz he created with his exploits for England, it’s important to consider that Brook had never played in India previously. Though pitches for T20 games are largely homogenous across the country, the atmosphere in Indian grounds and the nature of surfaces still present a different challenge to what Brook is accustomed to. His only prior experience in the subcontinent was on flat surfaces in Pakistan, where he exhibited ample evidence of his match-winning ability.
That ability has been on display for SRH in only one game so far. As the team management believes, it’s perhaps just a matter of one knock. It needs to come sooner rather than later though to salvage SRH’s floundering season.
