Hats off to Harry Brook’s very particular ‘steamrollered pancake pitch’ set of skills

5 minute read

This Multan pitch is flatter than a pancake that’s gone under a Looney Tunes steamroller. That doesn’t mean you can score infinite runs on it though. Even Harry Brook had to settle for a mere 317 – and he’s so far made a hundred in every Test he’s played in Pakistan.

Liam Neeson’s Taken character famously has “a very particular set of skills”. Because he’s not a cricketer or a businessman, he apparently doesn’t know about the word ‘skillset’.

“But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career; skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.”

While Harry Brook’s Test career has so far been relatively short, he has nevertheless acquired the very particular set of skills required to score very large numbers of runs on flat pitches. This makes him a nightmare for Pakistan bowlers.

The long haul

There’s a tendency in some quarters to undervalue big innings played on true pitches. Sure, the value of a run isn’t fixed and ‘tough runs’ scored in challenging conditions can be more significant when it comes to shaping the outcome of a game – but big innings are still big feats.

Not everyone can do this. Test triple hundreds in any conditions require certain qualities that most batters simply do not have. There’s a reason why Brook’s was only the second by an England batter in our lifetime after Graham Gooch’s 333.

Here’s Joe Root yesterday.

Look at those hollowed-out eyes. He looks tired, doesn’t he?

Root was ‘only’ on 100 at this moment. He was in fact being momentarily buoyed by the elation of having just reached three figures. And that’s what he looked like: knackered.

Root made another 160 after this. Big innings are hard physical work. Harry Brook had to run a great many of Root’s runs as well as his own, because his partner wasn’t getting ’em in boundaries – just 68 out of his final tally of 262, in fact.

Brook and Root covered an awful lot of ground. You won’t see what was exceptional about these innings in the highlights.

Alastair Cook was an endurance batter. Cook worked to develop extraordinary stamina, not so he could ascend to some unimaginable new plane of batting, but so that he could remain on the one he was on for a little bit longer. All that physical work was geared towards a simple goal. Cook wanted his feet to move much the same at 6pm as they did at midday.

Root is another who has this physical capacity – but it’s psychological too. Conscious thought is utterly draining. The ability to glide along, making runs on autopilot is rare and invaluable in these sorts of situations. One way or another, most people burn out not long after reaching three figures.

Cook made five Test double hundreds. Root has just gone past him with this sixth, but it tails off pretty quickly from there when you’re looking at England batters. Len Hutton made four. Kevin Pietersen made three. Gooch, David Gower and Jonathan Trott are among half a dozen who made two. Wally Hammond is in the top spot with seven.

Bully for you

Here’s another film quote for you: “Greed is good.”

You may view them as ‘cheaper’ runs overall, but there are undeniably times when a team’s flat track bullying proficiency is what makes the difference between winning and losing a match.

In large part because their home pitches tend to be more lively and the ball they use there more responsive, England have historically been pretty shit at this kind of thing.

You’d think batting would become easier on an absolute road, but that’s not really the story over the span of a long innings. Yeah, it’s easier for a bit, but then pretty soon England batters find themselves in uncharted physical and psychological territory and their innings comes to an end.

Few England batters have had a broader set of skills than Graham Thorpe. He made one double hundred and his next best effort was 138. You don’t even really need to go beyond the Bs to demonstrate this: Botham, Boycott and Bell all made only one double hundred.

Brook, you’d hazard, has another in him. And that is impressive – not least because the very particular set of skills required for a flat track triple aren’t the only ones he has. Lord knows he’s good for a rushed fifty ‘before you get a ball with your name on it’ too.

This is why the Test triple club is small. It’s not for everyone. Brian Lara made one, and a quadruple – not to mention a 501* in first-class cricket. Nine of Lara’s 33 Test hundreds were doubles or more.

> Brian Lara’s backlift

Sachin Tendulkar, in contrast, never made it past 248. We’re stretching ‘only’ a fair bit here, but only six of his 51 Test centuries were doubles.

Harry Brook has one triple. And that’s a lot. We reckon Chris Woakes was on for one too, if Ollie Pope hadn’t cruelly sawn him off on 17 with the declaration.

If you like your cricket writing a little more freewheeling and – let’s be honest – a little less focused, please help support King Cricket by backing our Patreon campaign. Ever since we switched off all the ads, we’ve been entirely reliant on our readers for funding.

If you want to get a better feel for where the money goes, you can find our other features here. And if you want to find out more about the ins and outs of the Patreon campaign, you can find more details here.

Or, if you’re really new to these parts, why not sign up for the email first to get a feel for what this site’s about.