There may have been a degree of self-effacement about Joe Root’s remarks, the great England cricket batter never one to trumpet his own world-leading qualities, yet his rhapsodic reference of Harry Brook was said with conviction. “Brooky is by far and away the best player in the world at the minute," Root effused of his fellow Yorkshireman. “He can absorb pressure; he can apply it. He can whack you over your head for six. He can scoop you over his head for six. He can smack spin. He can smack seam.”
The declarations of close colleagues are often best taken with a healthy dollop of salt but the statistical case for Brook’s supremacy is growing ever stronger. The 25-year-old has supplanted his senior middle-order partner for county and country at the top of the Test batting rankings – strong Yorkshire, strong England, as the old adage goes.
