Ollie Pope hailed the ability that the “unbelievably skilled” Harry Brook possesses “to flip a game” after the Yorkshireman’s quickfire 99 helped England to sprint to a total only six runs short of India’s first-innings 471 on day three at Headingley. With India reaching stumps on 90 for two the outcome of the first Test remains beautifully uncertain.
“Everyone knows what a fantastic player Harry is, and I think being able to put really skilled bowlers under that much pressure shows exactly the skills he has got,” Pope said. “But it is not just slugging, it is very well thought out. The ability to kind of flip a game – we were saying: ‘Oof, if he bats for another hour here we could be in an amazing position.’ That just shows the kind of skill he’s got, and power. It was unbelievably skilled.”
Brook fell in search of his hundredth run, hooking Prasidh Krishna straight to deep backward square leg to become the 14th Englishman to be dismissed on 99 in a Test, scored off 112 balls. But Pope insisted that for all his disappointment his teammate would not regret his choice of shot at that crucial moment. “He was pretty gutted to get out but he plays that shot pretty well,” Pope said. “I think he’d look to either keep it down or hit it for six next time.”
Brook had been dismissed off a no-ball before he had scored, and was also dropped on 46 and again on 82. “I think fate had decided 99 for him,” said Jasprit Bumrah, who ended England’s innings with a five‑fer but had also been responsible for the overstep that rescued Brook on Saturday evening.
“Not to take any credit from him, he played really well. He plays an aggressive style of cricket, but he can play an aggressive shot and sometimes he can shut up shop as well and try to negate if someone is bowling a good spell. You have to be really accurate and really clear in your plans here because if you are a little wayward run-scoring becomes very quick.
“So full credit to him, he played really well. We’ll try to hopefully have better plans and try to negate his plans in the next innings.”
Pope stated that England’s total showed that criticism of Ben Stokes’s decision at the toss to put India in to bat had been wide of the mark. “When you see a score like [India’s] you think we should have batted first, but I don’t think it was the wrong decision at all,” he said.
“We were good on day one and didn’t get our rewards. On another day we might get a few more wickets. We know we’ve had some success chasing at this ground too, so it’s easy to look at it and say, ‘You’ve got to bat first,’ but hopefully it will play out in our favour in the end.”
Late-innings runs might yet prove key, and while in their first innings India lost their last five wickets for 24, England’s added 189. “It’s really important, especially in England where the ball gets softer and the pitch is probably playing at its best, so there are definitely runs to be had,” Pope said.
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“I think it was really important for us to get seven [six] runs behind – I think 40 or 50, just from a mindset, might have given them a bit more confidence.”
Bumrah insisted that his side had “learned from that experience, and hopefully not make those mistakes in the second innings”. He admitted that the slope at Headingley – like the more famous one at Lord’s – can be hard for visiting players to deal with, with occasional no-balls a symptom of their unease.
“Mostly in India we are used to playing on simple, flat grounds that are not slopey,” Bumrah said. “One side is up, one side is down and it’s a little tricky sometimes because you start from a place up high, then it goes steep, and then you go back up. So it can be difficult as a bowler to find rhythm.”