Harry Brook: From Burley to England captain

Harry Brook is used to breaking batting records and earning plaudits at the dizzying speed at which he plays. He has since added England T20 and ODI (white-ball) captain to an impressive CV.

Will the Test leadership be next?

At the time of the England ODI appointment, Brook said: “It’s a real honour to be named England’s white-ball captain. Ever since I was a kid playing cricket at Burley in Wharfedale, I dreamed of representing Yorkshire, playing for England, and maybe one day leading the team. To now be given that chance means a great deal to me.

“I want to thank my family and coaches who’ve supported me every step of the way. Their belief in me has made all the difference and I wouldn’t be in this position without them.”

***

Back in 2024, Brook became the number one-ranked batter in the ICC Men’s Test Batting Rankings for the first time, nudging Joe Root off top spot.

It was an astute compliment from Root who called Brook “far and away the best player in the world” just days before the rankings were reversed.

However, in the shorter formats, it was a struggle – performances only yielded one half-century over a barren ten-game period but Brook got all of the attributes to succeed where Jos Buttler’s final throes as white-ball England captain did not.

As of June 2026, he averages 39.82 in ODIs and 30.3 in iT20s for England.

It probably means even less chances for White Rose fans to see Harry in a Yorkshire shirt and as a multi-format international where he now captains in two of the three formats – with Test cricket perhaps very close too now.

📸 Photo: John Heald – johnhealdphotography.co.uk

Harry Brook Test career

It’s easy to forget that the 27-year-old Keighley-born batter has so much of his Test cricket career still to come. With 36 Test matches behind him, a tally of 3,234 runs, average of 53.9 and highest score of 317, Brook’s record is phenomenal.

Over the past few years, the landmarks and records have come in a flurry for Brook, not least that first Test of the three-match series in Pakistan, October 2024, where England scored 823-7 declared.

Harry Brook’s 317 was England’s first triple hundred since 1990 but Harry mentioned that the motivation was actually beating his dad’s top score of 210 not out for Burley-in-Wharfedale Cricket Club vs Woodhouse.

Harry Brook Stats

After the 1st Test against New Zealand in 2026, Brook’s record stands at 10 Test hundreds and 16 half-centuries for England.

Like the ICC rankings, his average and form will go up and down – but Brook’s class, allied with the way he smiles his way through the carnage he unleashes is infectious.

It’s not always gone to plan – Brook, like England, had an 2025/26 Ashes in Australia to forget – though he averages 40 against Australia overall (home and away).

The hype around Harry Brook is understandable. In an era where England redefined scoring rates in Test matches, he was their poster boy.

Here on Cricket Yorkshire, we are just as excited as everyone else about Harry Brook. I interviewed him the year he broke into Yorkshire’s first team. Being asked to do a selfie with the rest of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club squad seemed like a sign of things to come.

There’s a lot of chat about players who might go on to play for England. Consensus was that Joe Root and now Harry Brook were both the real deal from a young age – and so it has proved.

Dave Cooper, Director of Cricket at Burley-in-Wharfedale Cricket Club has watched Harry’s development over years.

“It’s been written that he was going to be a top player. I’ve got a picture of him in the under eight team with Sam Fox (Yorkshire 2nd XI) and Matthew and Dan Revis (Yorkshire Under 15s). A crop of golden talent that appeared at the club as under nines.”

To surf around Google is to note with amusement some of the things people Google about him. Allow me to answer a few…

Harry Brook Highest Score

317 – for now – I imagine teams will not rush to prepare dusty roads as with the pitch in Multan where he batted for seven hours and 310 deliveries for the second-fastest triple century ever.

Harry Brook family

Harry’s family have been a part of life at Burley-in-Wharfedale CC for many years including, according to Bill Marshall in the T&A, his grandparents Pauline and Tony, his dad David, mum Lucy and uncles Richard and Nick.

I noticed that Richard hit 611 runs in the Aire-Wharfe Cricket League in 2024 while Nicholas wasn’t far behind with 574 at an average of 57. I have my own connection to the village as my family and close friends have lived there – and I went to watch a game there in the Heavy Woollen Cup in 2025 against New Farnley.

Harry Brook in club cricket

If you’re wondering about Harry Brook’s own club cricket journey, allow me to elaborate a bit…

He played for his home club Burley-in-Wharfedale in junior and senior cricket, as well as a few games in 2019 for Bradford & Bingley.

Can you spot him in the pic above?

As is the usual route of many, Harry progressed up the Yorkshire county age-groups while at Sedbergh School, turned out for Yorkshire Academy and then onto Yorkshire’s first-team.

If Play-Cricket is right, Brook scored 4,126 runs before turning professional. He’s rattled off a few since.

President Harry Brook

Amid the many honours (he was awarded the Freedom of Bradford in 2023), one that you might not know about is that Harry is now a President.

It seems only fitting. 

At the Aire-Wharfe Cricket League annual meeting at Otley RUFC in November 2024, it was confirmed that Brook was confirmed as President.

A nice touch by the League as a nod to Harry’s family association with the League and his own breathtaking achievements.

What’s next for Harry Brook?

There is a sense that despite his mighty numbers in Test cricket, Brook the batter has to reset as much as the England team has talked about, post-Ashes 2025-6.

We judge our sporting superstars with almost perverse degrees of harshness. We put them on a pedestal one moment and throw rocks a blink of an eye later.

Ok, that is professional sport and Brook’s star has dimmed and flickered a little due to form and some unwise off-field choices. However, he remains an astonishing cricketer with a gold-standard Test record.

We all get frustrated with Harry because sometimes he appears on another sublime level entirely and then seemingly gifts his wicket away.

That level of genius comes with a risk / reward ratio that I can only begin to fathom as a flailing, lower-league number eleven once upon a time.

The huge question on everyone’s lips is whether the England Test captaincy (when it comes and for how long) affects Harry Brook’s record as a batsman. Will he dial in batting at warp speed and speaking so plainly to the media?

We’re also all curious what type of leader Brook will be in the longest format and how it affects him. Don’t forget that when England were going through a dire year in Tests, Joe Root’s personal record as England captain drove him on to absurd levels of excellence.

What will England Test cricket be like under Harry Brook? Buckle up, we may not have to wait long…