Scientists say that the typical human can recognise 21 distinct facial expressions. After seven years of Test cricket, Jasprit Bumrah has grown to know a good handful of them about as well as any man can, from awe, through disgust, to fear, sadness, surprise and all their many combinations. You would guess it’s been a while since he’s seen a happy batter looking back at him from 22 yards, but if you had the binoculars onHarry Brookfirst thing on Sunday morning, you could see he was wearing such a big, goofy grin that his teeth were glinting through the gloaming.
You don’t want to kink-shame him, but you’d think there must be easier ways to get your kicks than to go running down the pitch to hit a man bowling 90mph bouncers. But Brook’s brain seems to be wired a little differently. On the third ball Bumrah bowled him on Sunday, he decided to take two quick steps forwards and wallop it through the covers for four.
It was an extraordinary shot, in an innings studded with them. Brook picked up one of Prasidh Krishna’s short balls from outside off and heaved it into the stands beyond midwicket; he walked down the pitch to launch Mohammed Siraj over the silly mid-off he’d just set to try and deter exactly that shot, and even played Rishabh Pant’s roly‑poly scoop over the wicketkeeper to score a four off Ravindra Jadeja. It was like watching a kid copying the trick he’d just seen on TV, except he got away with it.
These aren’t strokes your typical batter could imagine, let alone execute. But thenBrook is the most richly giftedshotmaker England have had since Kevin Pietersen was in the team. Time was, and not so long ago, when you would have been told off for trying them. But Brendon McCullum is the only England coach Brook has ever known – he has grown up being encouraged to play this way.
By the time the second new ball came around, India’s bowlers had had just about enough of it. They already thought they’d got Brook out once when he couldn’t help himself but try to hook one of Bumrah’s bouncers and was caught at midwicket off what turned out to be a no-ball, and then they thought they had got him a second time when he edged a ball from Jadeja through to Pant, who couldn’t hold on to the catch. They had spent all morning trying, and failing, to persuade the umpires to let them change the soft ball they’d been working with, and now they finally had a shiny new one by right.
They gave it to Siraj. He is one of those bowlers who likes to pick a fight, and always seems to be pissed off with his lot. The Telangana police recently swore him in as an honorary deputy constable, and he has the air of a man you wouldn’t want to make ask twice to see your licence.
Siraj beat Brook once outside off, when Brook swung so hard at a cut that he threw himself off his feet, then he beat him again when he hit his inside edge and the ball ricocheted away off his thigh. He was starting to warm up, then Brook went and belted his next two deliveries for four, and he reached a boil. Siraj banged the next ball in short at Brook’s ribs, and hit him on the elbow. He followed the delivery in and, while Brook winced, Siraj stood in the middle of the pitch, staring at him. He shot him a couple of kind words – exactly what is between the two of them – and then a length delivery which Brook spanked back over his head for six.
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He might as well have flicked him on the forehead. Siraj fired the next one in so quick that even though Brook missed it, it shot off his pads for four leg byes. When Siraj overcorrected himself and dropped the next one wide on the off side, Brook hammered him for four more through point. That made it 18 off the over. And it was at this point that Pant decided everyone needed a time out, and called a trainer on to strap up his ankle. His teammates gathered in a huddle. Apart from Siraj who stood, hands on hips, staring into the distance. He looked as if he was going to blow up if anyone came within three feet of him.
Somewhere in among all this, Brook was dropped yet again when he cut one of Bumrah’s away-swingers to gully. He was finally out on 99, caught in the deep. You sometimes wonder if there’s a thought in his head at all, except to belt the ball. In this, at least, he is part of a long Yorkshire tradition – Geoff Boycott, Herbert Sutcliffe and Norman Yardley all got out one shy of a Test hundred in their time, too, though you have to guess they probably weren’t trying to belt a six when they did it.