So, on we go, to Manchester the other side of a much-needed break, England on the board and the Ashes alive.
It is probably a little rich to write in the pages of an English newspaper and speculate on the neutral’s view, but one suspects most, if they exist, are glad. After three gripping Tests, it would have been a crying shame were the last two rendered irrelevant spin-offs with the main story ending here.
Headingley has long-established a reputation for reviving fading dreams and once again delivered, the long shadow cast by its 2019 epic continuing to hold eery sway over this series, each match defined by the same faces and fashions. At Edgbaston, it was Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins that banished a few demons by steering their team home. At Lord’s, it was Ben Stokes’s Headingley tribute that came so close to getting England over the line.
This week, returning to the ground, he did it again to reduce England’s first innings, and with early wickets falling in a day four chase the narrative arcs were once again moulded parallel. By close, they had arrived at the same conclusion - at last, though, taken there by protagonists anew.
At 24, Harry Brook is the youngest player in this England side. Ten matches into his short career, he already has four hundreds to his name, averages 64 and on Sunday became the fastest player in history, in terms of balls faced, to register 1,000 Test runs, striking at a frankly ludicrous 94.
Those, you will have noticed, are extraordinary numbers but they are only numbers all the same. It is numbers, traditionally, that make a cricketer’s career, get you into the team and keep you there. But it is days and moments, particularly in this rivalry, that make heroes and legends, and these were the most decisive yet of Brook’s debut Ashes, a superbly judged innings (incidentally, of 75) guiding the chase to the home bend as more experienced heads rolled.
There were 158 runs to get when Brook arrived at the crease and only 21 by the time he was out, a 59-run partnership with Chris Woakes in which the junior figure played with such maturity the key. Almost as important, though, was the conversation between Moeen Ali and Brendon McCullum the previous day in which the all-rounder asked to be promoted to No3, a move that allowed Brook to shuffle back down the order to his most comfortable slot at five. Moeen was out cheaply, but his selflessness crucially allowed Brook to start his innings against Mitchell Marsh and Scott Boland, and by the time Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc - responsible between them for his previous three dismissals - he was already motoring, having struck Boland for back-to-back fours. Stokes suggested afterwards that the plan was a one-off, but it must surely come under consideration for Old Trafford, now Brook has found his form.
A player of great promise had already evolved into a fully-fledged, all-format international batter, a T20 World Cup winner, no less. Even so, this still felt like a coming of age.
“The way Brooky controlled the game from ball one with the bat was amazing,” Stokes said afterwards, the master having been unable to watch in the dressing room once the apprentice was out with England not quite there. “He went out there and put the pressure straight back on to them. For such a young lad in a high pressure situation in the Ashes was incredible. We’ve all seen what he can do with the bat, he’s an incredibly gifted player, and I think he’s only going to get better and better the more pressure situations he’s put in.”
And one can only imagine the pressure, on your home ground, the first Ashes series you’ve ever played in already on the line, not to mention a dressing room full of established stars who may well not get another chance.
One of the thrills of this series has been its sense of finality, the knowledge that for two sets of players who have defined this rivalry for years, this could, or in some cases, will be the end. Eight of Australia’s team at Headingley were aged over 30 and seven of England’s likewise, even without James Anderson, who turns 41 this month, in the side.
In Brook, at last, one of the new wave has left a lasting Ashes mark.
