Harry Brook Describes Intense Lord's Test: England Felt Like "11 vs. 2" Against India

Wednesday - 23/07/2025 06:05

The English batter relived the Lord's Test and also touched upon the returning Liam Dawson to the English setup

The recent England vs. India Test match at Lord's was not only a closely contested affair, decided by a narrow 22-run margin, but also a heated one, with players from both sides engaging in spirited exchanges.

Harry Brook during a tense moment in the series.

Harry Brook has played a key part for England in the series so far © Getty

Speaking ahead of the fourth Test at Manchester, Harry Brook reflected on the intensity of the match. "Them lads went hard at Creeps [Crawley] and Ducky [Duckett] on that night when Bumrah bowled that single over. We watched that and we reassessed and we thought it was the right time to go back at them," Brook stated.

Brook also shared his perspective on the atmosphere during England's fielding innings. "I've had a lot of compliments. Everybody said it was awesome to watch and it looked like there was 11 versus two out there when we were fielding. It was good fun, it was tiring but it made fielding a lot more enjoyable," he revealed.

When questioned about whether the verbal exchanges contributed to the pressure on the Indian team, Brook responded, "Yeah, I think so. I think it put them under a little bit more pressure. Obviously, chasing a low score but on a tough pitch. It might have given them that little bit of added pressure. Thankfully, they ended up crumbling and we won the game."

The series has been filled with nail-biting finishes, with each game going down to the wire. "Every game that we've played so far has gone into the last hour of the game, which you do not see very often. I've had a lot of people come up to me saying it's been an amazing series. . . Everybody said that the Lords game was one of the best games that they've watched. It's been an amazing series and I'm looking forward to the rest of it," Brook added.

Dawson's Inclusion

Brook also lauded Liam Dawson, who replaced the injured Shoaib Bashir in the squad. "He's a wily old fox, very experienced. He's a very skillful cricketer as well. He's played everywhere, played against everyone. . . Hopefully he can land it in the foot-holes and create a bit of spice out of there and some opportunities to take wickets. He's obviously a very good batter as well, he's got nearly 20 First-Class hundreds. That's adding to our strength in batting. He's a good bloke, he's willing to always fight for the team. He's very competitive and it's good to have him here," he said.

Root's Reign at the Top

On the topic of Joe Root overtaking him as the No. 1 Test batter in the ICC rankings, Brook showed respect for his teammate. "Everybody wants to be number one, don't they? Him probably more than anybody else. He's a phenomenal player. I'm not in the same league as him, so I'll happily let him have it. He's played for 12-13 years or however long he's played. In my opinion, he's the best Test batter of all time, so I'll let him have that one for now," Brook stated.