Red-ball game now top of agenda for Yorkshire’s Harry Brook
HARRY BROOK will head out on Yorkshire’s pre-season tour to Dubai this weekend full of confidence from a generally successful winter on his travels.
The 23-year-old right-hand batsman from Keighley has barely had a minute since the turn of the year, featuring in the Big Bash for Hobart Hurricanes and the Pakistan Super League, as well as making his England T20 debut in the West Indies.
It was his recent time in Pakistan, though, that brought him the most success, helping the Lahore Qalanders to their first Super League title on Sunday.
Now back in Yorkshire, Brook is taking stock of the past few weeks before he begins to think about what the rest of 2022 will bring him at Yorkshire.
The former England Under-19 captain proved a star attraction for the Qalanders – who are formally affiliated to Yorkshire – averaging 52.8 as he scored 264 runs in 10 appearances. It included a T20 career-best of 102 not out, his maiden century in the quickfire format.
He proved a key ingredient in Sunday’s final, too, scoring a blistering 41 not out off 22 balls as Lahore got the better of defending champions Multan Sultans, who had Yorkshire team-mate David Willey in their ranks, with Brook’s new county first-team coach, Ottis Gibson, in charge.
“To be able to bring the trophy home for Lahore was amazing,” recalled Brook on Yorkshire’s website. “You could see how happy all the coaches, players and fans were when we won it. They were buzzing.
“The atmosphere inside the stadium was incredible and it’s probably up there as the best crowd I’ve ever played in front of.”
After a winter dominated by white-ball cricket, Brook now intends to catch up on his red-ball skills ahead of the new season, one that gets underway with a County Championship clash against Gloucestershire on April 14 in Bristol.
“I’m delighted to have finished the winter off the way I have,” added Brook. “I had a tricky time in the Big Bash but they are the times when you learn the most.
“I could have done a lot better for Hobart, but as long as I learn from that and don’t make the same mistakes again, then you can view it as a positive.
“The reason I really want to go on this pre-season tour, despite the busy winter I’ve had, is that I need to go and do some red ball work and get on track with that before the season starts.”