The Harry Brook innings that showed England’s muddled minds amid Ashes carnage

Brook played true to England’s values on a day where 20 wickets tumbled — would they have been better served sticking to their positive approach throughout the tour?

There’s a political theory that people don’t vote in terms of self-interest, but in terms of their values. They are happy to hurt themselves, so long as they stay true to themselves.

England were eight for three when Harry Brook walked to the middle. Facing his first ball, he charged down the wicket at Mitchell Starc, swung, missed, and smiled.

“Most of the time when I’ve been overly aggressive is when we’ve lost early wickets,” Brook said ahead of the third Test in Adelaide. “I’ve tried to counter-punch and put them back under pressure.”

Harry Brook trod the line between intent and recklessness to end with the highest score of the day (AFP via Getty Images)

True to himself to the end.

Brook ended up with 41 from 34 balls. It was the highest score on a day where 20 wickets fell and England found themselves - again - on the wrong side of a day’s play.

It was a moment that divided political opinion across the stadium. Commentators falling off their chairs, bereft at the recklessness, all while ignoring that three of his teammates had just perished and a fourth soon would also. At 16 for four, three of England’s players had nicked off defending. Joe Root recorded the longest duck of his career at 15 balls. Which is the greater crime?

“The pitch is doing too much if I’m brutally honest,” said former England bowler Stuart Broad on SEN radio. “Test match bowlers don’t need this amount of movement to look threatening.”

A MCG surface offering lavish movement will come under scrutiny (AFP via Getty Images)

Of the many disappointments of this Ashes series, high on the list is that we never saw the end of the story. For years, England have spoon-fed the public nonsense about running towards the danger, doubling-down and going even harder. It has been utterly intoxicating.

And yet in Australia, they blinked. Defeat in Brisbane led to Ben Stokes imploring his players to “fight”. He referred to his changing room as “no place for weak men.” The result has been a different England.

Harry Brook swiped at the first ball he faced on a day dominated by the bowlers (AP)

On a flat pitch in Adelaide, after picking a stacked batting line-up and with temperatures over 40 degrees, they blocked it.

“Surprising,” was Aussie skipper Pat Cummins’ thoughts on England’s showing with the bat in that instance. “It was 40-odd degrees, it was a very flat wicket and they shut up shop for half the day which I was pretty happy with.”

And then here, with Australia all out for 152 on a wicket that was seaming all over the place, only Brook ran towards that danger they’d been talking about for so long.

Harry Brook was the one England batter to ‘run towards the danger’ (Getty Images)

Bazball has been a cricketing social experiment. Born from a coach, Brendon McCullum, who was inspired by a no consequences approach to cricket following the death of Australian batter Phil Hughes. And from a captain, Ben Stokes, who having suffered from his own mental health issues, took over a team in the depths of a one Test win in 17, a Covid-impacted rut, and felt the need for change. It is former England captain Mike Brearley, who later trained as a psychotherapist, who first made the connection between Bazball and it being a response to male mental health.

McCullum, for what it's worth, has always pushed back against the name, saying it was given to him by someone else. But so was ‘Brendon’. It’s still his identity.

Of the four top-scorers on a remarkable day’s play, three had the highest strike-rates where risk tallied with reward. When Brook was ultimately dismissed for 41, he had made 62% of England’s overall total of 66 and almost a third of Australia’s. He had struck two sixes, one over extra cover and another when he bludgeoned a back of a length ball over midwicket. It was phenomenal batting only possible with a huge amount of skill, made with a strategy that also had a fair amount of evidence behind it. Brook’s scores for England when entering the crease with England three down for less than 30 runs? 186, 26, 123 and 158.

In Melbourne, England had Will Jacks, with five T20 centuries to his name, at number eight. This was a tailor-made opportunity for them to stick to the process that got them here by playing aggressive cricket that suited an aggressive line-up. They are still not out of the game, trailing only by 46 runs at the close, but they are still behind.

England appear to have lost conviction in their approach during this series (Robbie Stephenson/PA Wire)

Across the tour, their run-rate has been the lowest out of any of the 16 they have played under Stokes and McCullum. A considerable chunk of that is because of the quality bowlers Australia have on hand, but it is nevertheless indicative of where true, utmost, delusional self-belief has been tempered by a desire to do the ‘right’ thing.

Naturally, it is easier to say this than to be in it. Stick to their guns throughout, fall in a heap like they did in Perth and these same pages may read of a team that is stubborn to the point of stupid. But this England team blocks out the noise. They don’t care for others' opinions because to do so would be to bend from the values they believed in, even if it hurt themselves.

Twenty wickets fell on the opening day of the Boxing Day Test with Australia on top (PA Wire)

But as it happened, in Melbourne, they bent of their own free will.