Harry Brook has already played multiple rash shots.
England batter Harry Brook has accepted that his shots to get out in the first two Ashes 2025 Tests in Perth and Brisbane were shocking. His unnecessary gung-ho approach, which has forced him to play rash strokes on tricky batting decks, has been heavily criticised, including by Stuart Broad.
In the four Ashes 2025 innings so far, Brook has 98 runs at an average of 24 and a strike rate of 83.05, with a solitary fifty. As England enter a must-win territory after being 2-0 down, the vice-captain didn’t shy from calling out his own dismissal shots “shocking” and “bad” when the media asked whether Australian pitches have been a reason for his dismissals.
“No, they were shocking shots. I’ll admit that every day of the week. Especially that one in Perth. It was nearly a bouncer, and I’ve tried to drive it. It was just bad batting. The one in Brisbane, I’ve tried to hit for six. I can almost just take that and hit it for one and get down the other end. I’ll be the first person to stand up and say that they were bad shots. I don’t regret them, but if I were there again, I’d try and play it slightly differently.”
Harry Brook has already played three shocking shots to lose his wicket: the first one came in the second innings of the Perth Test, where he went for an expansive drive on a delivery outside the off-stump line, getting an outside edge. Later, he made the same mistake in Brisbane when he chased another avoidable delivery with hard lengths and nicked straight to the second slip in the first innings.
Harry Brook is among the most gifted batters in world cricket and can take on any bowler on any pitch, thanks to his vast range of shots. However, he has often chosen the wrong ball for the wrong shot, as he has the freedom to back himself, to lose his wicket in the process, as happened in Perth and Brisbane.
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However, Australian pitches have been unfavourable for batters, and while positive cricket is still effective, loose shots won’t work. Travis Head has shown how to tackle fast bowlers on such surfaces by going more towards the ball rather than away from the body, something Brook has often done.
Usually, Australia provide decks that suit those stroke-making batters, but the recent trend has changed massively. Significant seam movement throughout the game has already made batting arduous, and expansive shots on the up will hardly work without any feet movement.
The bounce also plays a role: Harry Brook has played most of his games in England, where the bounce doesn’t remain too uneven, but it’s always more than usual Down Under, so the ball climbs on batters. Those are the factors he must consider before every shot, as his natural methods won’t deliver the same success in Australia, and another Ashes could slip away unless he curbs his instincts immediately.
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