Harry Brook urges England to make the most of ‘good wicket’ after best score in the series

Harry Brook may have played like a carefree man en route to a freewheeling 78, not on a rain-shortened day one of the Sydney Test, but by the end of the match he was reassuringly phlegmatic about his own batting performance during the live portion of this Ashes series.

“We’re in a very good position, three down at the end of the game and hopefully we can make the most of that tomorrow,” Brook said. “When I first went in it felt like the jump was quite steep, but then it started to get a bit lower and slower and it feels like a good wicket overall.”

Brook and Joe Root shared an unbroken partnership of 154 runs, leaving England in a rare strong position and Brook with his highest score of the series. The post-lunch session in particular was a gripping spectacle as Australia caught Brook short and he alternated between a series of pulls and carves in the air, occasionally nailing a four or six.

“It’s obviously a trick that’s been used against me throughout my career. I’ve experienced it a lot so far and I expect to experience it a lot in the future, so I thought I played it well. I could have played it better at times. Today it didn’t feel great, but another day it will feel a lot better, so luckily I just got through it and can carry that momentum into tomorrow.”

For Brook, this was a tour of promising starts and slugging dismissals, although his aggression in Melbourne on a seam pitch was a key ingredient in England’s victory. Here was a notable emphasis on strike rotation in conjunction with Root.

“I just have to be a little more patient and take mine here and there and luckily I did that today; I did that in a few other innings as well. So that’s something I have to think about moving forward, put that into my game and try to be a little patient at times. But obviously it hasn’t worked this series because I haven’t scored as many runs as I would have liked.”

“It’s been a frustrating series. I’ve been in double figures every innings but one and that’s what I’ve done so well in my career. I’ve managed to go on and get big scores. It just hasn’t happened this series and there have obviously been periods where I’ve played them a little differently and it’s all part of the learning curve.”

Asked if he thought the surface would fall apart from here, Brook echoed his captain’s pre-match shrug.

“Absolutely no idea. No one ever knows what they’re talking about when it comes to wickets apart from the groundsman, so we’ll have to see. It depends on the weather obviously. If the flags break in the next few days it could break up and it could start to turn towards the end of the game. But there’s a decent layer of grass on it so it’s quite true at the moment.”

With the omission of Todd Murphy and Shoaib Bashir, neither team came into this match with a specialist spinner. Brook tends to favor the seams, although perhaps not on this tour when Australia’s rotating quartet has been the difference in this series.

“I expected to see a bit more spin. Something came on the TV that there’s only been 60 overs or something per side in the whole series. So yeah, I expected to see more spin than we did, but their seams have been excellent all series. They’ve been ruthless and they’ve gone the distance time and time again. So you can see why this week they’ve gone with a five-seam attack; five-, six-seam attack. However much they’ve got in there.”