Harry Brook channels Root and Bairstow as he arrives on the international stage

In 15 Tests across 2021, England had just two different centurions. Joe Root made six, Rory Burns made one.

This year has been rather better, with eight different batsmen scoring hundreds. On the first day at Rawalpindi alone, there were four. And unlike Root and Burns, all four are in their twenties, reaffirming the sense that a new generation of English batting is flowering.

Harry Brook was the last to reach the milestone. He is also the youngest of the four men, and reached his hundred quickest, in terms of balls faced: 80, behind only Gilbert Jessop (76 in 1902) and the man whose seat he is warming, Jonny Bairstow (77 at Trent Bridge last summer), in the list of England’s fastest tons. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the puppeteer, Brendon McCullum, has three faster Test hundreds than Brook’s: from 55, 74 and 78 balls.

Even at just 23 and playing his second Test, Brook was made to wait for this. There was much excitement when he first broke into the Yorkshire team as a fresh-faced kid but the returns were not instant and when Covid struck, he was 21 and had a first-class average in the mid-twenties. He returned strongly from the enforced break and has produced three excellent seasons since.

Having carried drinks all summer, an opportunity in this side only emerged when Bairstow suffered his freak leg break in September. By that point it was not just in Yorkshire that he was considered the coming man. In Rawalpindi, he absolutely confirmed that status.

Brook has a wonderfully straightforward manner. Ben Stokes joked before his Test debut that he was “a bit dumb”. But the simplicity with which he approaches his life and cricket has been on full display since he arrived in Pakistan.

England have not had much preparation but Brook has had the least of all. He makes all of their squads right now so, after being parachuted in for that Test debut at the Kia Oval in September, he headed off to Pakistan for seven T20s, where he thrived, then the World Cup in Australia. His form tailed off on bouncier wickets, but he won a medal.

Afterwards, England told him to head home – literally. He bought himself a house in late summer, but had not had time to move in, so was afforded a short break to do so. That meant he missed Bazfest in Abu Dhabi: a week of socialising and warm-up cricket. You would never have known it; not only did he look in prime form, but he oozed confidence. Perhaps that is because he is rested and, in his words, was “one of the very few” who has remained healthy as a virus spread in recent days.

Brook strolled out in a wonderful position, 286 for three, but could not have played the situation better. He ticked over in Ollie Pope’s slipstream, reaching from 50 from 52 balls, showing only a couple of moments of real aggression. Both, though, showed his fearless nature: first, launching the spinner over mid-off for his first boundary, then rocking back and pulling six in the over before tea.

He looked like a player who understood the conditions he was playing in, because he does. England may not have played a Test in Pakistan for 17 years, but Brook has starred in the Pakistan Super League, and in the T20 series against them; across the international formats.

“The pitches from that experience have always been slow, low and skiddy,” he said. “Today was the same as a T20 pitch, whether that will change throughout the match I don’t know.”

Passing fifty with the light drawing in, Brook recognised the opportunity to accelerate, possibly not wanting to sleep on a maiden century. His eyes lit up at the arrival of Saud Shakeel’s part-time spin, which he took for six fours in an over.

“They were all bad balls, and I just tried to put them away,” he smiled. “I was always going to try to put the sixth one away. I was probably happier with that over than my hundred, to be honest.”

Brook showed the gears he possesses, learnt from the two most recent outstanding batsmen from Yorkshire, Root and Bairstow. He does not have Root’s poise or Bairstow’s power, but his game perhaps sits neatly in a venn diagram of the two.

Brook is standing in at No 5 for Bairstow, who is a certainty to return when fit because of his extraordinary impact this summer. The challenge for the youngster is to make himself impossible to leave out when that time comes – and this was the perfect start.

To that end, the trouble for Brook – but not England – is that three others made the perfect start, too.