Sri Lanka legendary batter Kumar Sangakkara praised England batter Harry Brook for his “simplicity of technique”, saying that he loves watching to young batter bat.
During the first test match against Sri Lanka, Brook displayed a mature nature, as he played slow and steady to amass 56 runs in 73 balls despite his aggressive nature. His runs came at a strike rate of just over 76, way below his career SR of over 90.
While speaking in the media, Sangakkara said, “He is such a good player. I love watching him bat, I like the simplicity of his technique and the intent he bats with.”
“It is always about scoring runs and there is nothing complicated in the way he does it.” Sangakkara urged him to stick to his natural game.
“He has got good awareness about how he wants to play cricket and I think the best thing that can happen for Harry Brook is to be told, ‘just keep batting the way you are, do not get confused with anything else’,” concluded Sangakkara.
Brook made his Test debut in 2022 and has been part of England’s Bazbal approach, which took a shift in the side’s test cricket, brought by skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. In 16 tests, Brook has scored 1434 runs at an average of 59.75 with a strike rate over 90. He has five centuries and nine fifties under his name with a high score of 186.
Coming to the match, England ended the day 02 scoring 259/6 runs with Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson remaining unbeaten with 72 and 4 respectively. Harry Brook and Joe Root also played crucial knocks for England after they struggled at 67/3 at one point.
Batting first Sri Lana was down to 113/7, but knocks from Dhananjaya de Silva and debutant Milan Rathnayake revived Sri Lanka with their stunning knocks. Chris Woakes and Shoaib Bashir picked three wickets each for England. England scored 259 runs for 6 wickets and led Sri Lanka by 23 runs by the end of day 02.
