Ben Stokes says he was excited by the prospect of Harry Brook’s Test debut against South Africa
England skipper Ben Stokes said he was energized by the possibility of Harry Brook’s Test debut in the wake of affirming the Yorkshire batsman would replace the injured Jonny Bairstow in the series finale against South Africa.
England skipper Ben Stokes said he was energized by the possibility of Harry Brook’s Test debut in the wake of affirming the Yorkshire batsman would replace the injured Jonny Bairstow in the series finale against South Africa.
Brook is the only change to the England XI that leveled the three-match series with a commanding victory in the second Test at Old Trafford after Bairstow was ruled out with a freak leg injury suffered playing golf. Bairstow has been in heavenly form this year, scoring 1,061 runs, including six centuries, in 10 Tests.
“Harry is someone who has been spoken about a lot as representing England going forward,”
Stokes said at the Oval on Wednesday, on the eve of the deciding Test.
“It’s amazing how sometimes people’s opportunities get presented to them… He deserved his opportunity to be in the squad initially and he deserves his opportunity this week.”
The captain said he felt “devastated” for Bairstow, who will also miss the T20 World Cup in Australia, which begins next month.
“He’s been a massive reason as to why we’ve had such a successful summer,”
he said.
“It was a freak accident.”
But all-rounder Stokes added:
“How our middle order has been playing this summer, I feel as if Harry coming in, the way he goes about his game with the bat in his hand is pretty much a like-for-like replacement.
“He’s always going to look to take the bowling on, take the positive option. It’s devastating to not have Jonny but I’m very excited we get a replacement with the skill Jonny possesses.”
Brook, 23, has featured four Twenty20 internationals for England.
South Africa won the first Test at Lord’s by an innings and 12 runs, only for England to return quickly to win by an innings and 85 runs in Manchester during another match wrapped up inside three days.
“We know that South Africa is always going to stay in the game and stay in the moment,”
said Stokes.
“We put the Lord’s defeat behind us and we concentrated on Manchester so I know that Dean (Elgar, the Proteas captain) and the South Africa team will be doing the same thing here.
“I think it’s great for the series that it goes down to the wire. I know that South Africa is going to come out firing but it’s how we respond to the questions that they ask us.”
England XI: Zak Crawley, Alex Lees, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (cap), Ben Foakes (wk), Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson