Welcome to the age of Harry Brook.
The frontrunner ever since Jos Buttler confirmed his intention to resign from the England white-ball captaincy, Brook’s appointment, to both roles, has ended speculation that Ben Stokes could unite the role across formats, or that an outsider could be brought in to shake things up. But it’s more than that. The history of English cricket is measured in eras, and this marks the start of a new one. Brook has been handed the keys to the kingdom, but if he is to make his reign a triumph, there are several challenges to overcome.
Managing his schedule
Not since Paul Collingwood, whose reign in charge of the ODI side ended in 2008, have England had a captain in both white-ball formats who is also a regular in the Test side. The demands on modern cricketers have changed significantly since then, and how Brook manages his downtime will be crucial to how he goes when playing. The development that he will eschew franchise cricket for the foreseeable future is welcome from this point of view, though it could hamper his development in foreign conditions. But either way the next 12 months loom large, with ten Tests against India and Australia swiftly followed by a T20 World Cup in the subcontinent. Between now and the start of that tournament England have 11 Tests, 12 ODIs and 15 T20Is scheduled. Can Brook be expected to play all of those games, and if not, which can he miss?
Improving against spin
In particular, Brook’s batting struggles can be pinpointed to his playing of spin. There have been flashes - on his breakout Test tour of Pakistan in 2022, Brook’s second and third hundreds came on pitches conducive to turn - but in general the criticism that he is yet to have sustained success against the turning ball is a fair one, both in the IPL and for England. Brook must find the time to focus on his own game while leading his country, with a T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka next year looming as the first big test for his captaincy. And while it helps the schedule concerns, not playing in the IPL removes one potential training ground for Brook against slow bowling.
The generation transition
Brook’s appointment marks perhaps the most significant step yet in England’s transition from the core of their team being based around an extraordinary clutch of talent born around the turn of the nineties to a group born under Tony Blair’s Labour government. Thanks for your service millennials, but it’s Gen Z’s turn now. This is a transition that must be handled carefully, but England’s poor white-ball form offers little room for future planning. If they don’t win now, the questions will mount. Ben Stokes is unlikely to return, according to Rob Key, while Joe Root looked to have rediscovered his ODI verve at the Champions Trophy. Brook and England will hope Jos Buttler can rediscover his best without the yoke of captaincy round his neck.
Then there’s the challenge of figuring which of England’s talented young players are backed to carry them forward. All of Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton and Jamie Smith have strong claims to a place in the top six, but there’s room for at most two of them, even if England move on from Phil Salt. Then there’s an undercard of Jordan Cox, Will Jacks and Zak Crawley, among others. But there is opportunity here to, with Brook tasked with leading and shaping a cohort of similarly aged players, who between them can define England over the next half a decade or more.
England's batting tempo
There’s an irony to the fact that Brook is a symptom of the problems that have necessitated his own elevation to the captaincy. England’s issues are as much of tempo as they are of technique as a group of players deprived of the opportunity of playing regular one-day cricket are forced to master the format’s peculiar challenges at the top level. Brook is as guilty as any of a rash shot, of not understanding when to attack and when to sit in, and is also yet to show that sustained middle-overs accumulation that marks out the very best ODI batters, the ability to take four or five runs off an over almost unnoticed. He is capable of all those things, of course, but he now needs to improve his own game while also setting an example to the rest of his teammates who will now be looking to him to show how they should be going about things.
Rebuilding the bowling arsenal
Conversations around England in white-ball cricket invariably centre on their batting. Here, a poor shot is a sign of not caring, of a bad gameplan, or of a system that doesn’t prepare them for the toughest challenges. But the bowling was just as much a concern in the Champions Trophy, Australia gunning down 352 with ease, and a more modest Afghanistan line-up cruising past 300. Mark Wood’s form has tailed off, and in any case he is surely best reserved for the Tests his breakable body allows him to play. Chris Woakes is 36 and hasn’t played since the World Cup. Jofra Archer has shown signs of returning to his best in the IPL, but still has plenty to prove. And beyond them, England’s options look limited, with Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse taking pastings and Jamie Overton somehow still a work in progress at 31 years old. Meanwhile, Adil Rashid’s succession planning largely amounts to hoping his shoulder holds up forever, or at least until 2027. Beyond that, who knows?
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