Harry Brook: Tough to get 20 wickets but we're going to give it a crack

The batter, who top-scored for England with 153 runs from 116 balls, believes the pitch is starting to get a bit lower, which could open the door for the bowlers

Elizabeth Botcherby | 02/12/2022 at 18:22

Harry Brook is confident England's bowlers will be able to pick up the 20 wickets required to force a result in Rawalpindi, backing Ben Stokes to "figure out a plan".

Over 800 runs have been scored across the opening two days of the first Test while just 10 wickets (all in England's first innings) have fallen. Pakistan are currently nicely set on 181 for 0, with Abdullah Shafique on 89 and Imam-ul-Haq on 90.

However, Brook, who was one of four England players to score a century, believes there is something in the pitch, which has been branded "embarrassing" by PCB chair, Ramiz Raja, for his side's bowlers to exploit.

"It's a pretty nice wicket to bat on as you can tell by our score," Brook said. "It's going to be tough to get 20 wickets but we're going to give it a crack. Hopefully Stokesy can figure out a plan.

"When we were batting it started to get a little bit lower, so hopefully we can get on to stay on the ground and hit one of them in the boot. If we keep bowling straight, get a few lbws. It's about striking at the right time and trying to go bang, bang.

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^{Brook in action on day two [Matthew Lewis/Getty Images]}

"Hopefully we can force a result. England have done that every game [in the] last couple of series."

Brook made the most of the helpful conditions, top-scoring for England with 153 runs off 116 balls in just his second Test: "It's a nice feeling. Just to get a Test cap is a dream come true, to get some runs out there is a very nice feeling.

"One of the things Stokesy said was, 'We've broken some records yesterday, let's try and break some more today', so I think with the amount of runs we had on the board, we had the freedom to go out and play however we wanted. I took the positive option and played my shots.

"It's quite a slow, low wicket – most are in Pakistan – so I didn't feel under much pressure. They went to quite defensive fields early on which made it slightly easier. I'm an aggressive player so I'm always going to try and take the bowlers on."

As for taking overs from Saud Shakeel and Zahid Mahmood for 24 and 27 runs, respectively, he added: "The first set he bowled six bad balls, so I put them away. Second time, he came round the wicket, so I felt like reverse was quite a free option. Later in the over, I got close to the record, so my eyes lit up."