Harry Brook finally lived up to his billing in the game against Kolkata Knight Riders in the 19th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He is featuring for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in his maiden IPL season and amidst all the hype, was going through tough times before this game.
Brook's scores in the first three matches of the season read 13, 3 and 13 and struggled big time to even time the ball as well. However, opening the innings, he found his mojo and made the KKR bowlers pay for their poor lines and lengths at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Ever since the breakout knock, Harry Brook's IPL auction price has become the talking point of the town.
Brook was picked by the SRH franchise at the IPL 2023 auction for a massive price of INR 13.25 crore winning the bidding war against Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore. He came in with a big reputation of smashing big in Test cricket.
He currently averages 80.90 in six Test matches having scored 809 runs with 3 fifties and 4 centuries to his name. 186 is his highest score in the longest format and also strikes at 137.77 in T20Is after playing 20 matches. No wonder he is being considered the next big thing across all the formats in England.
Brook seemed relieved after finally smashing a big score in IPL and revealed that the Indian fans were slamming him for failures on social media a few days ago. "Was a special night. Thankfully we got over the line as well. Got a little tense in the middle. A lot of people say that opening the batting in T20 is the best time to bat. I'm happy to bat anywhere. I've had a lot of success batting at five. Made my name there.
"My four Test hundreds will have to be over this one. The crowd was phenomenal tonight. I enjoyed it. I was putting pressure on myself a little bit. You go on social media and people are calling you rubbish. There's a lot of Indian fans out there who'll say well done tonight. But they were slagging me off a few days ago. Glad I could shut them up to be honest," Brook said after the match.
