James Anderson believes Harry Brook can become England’s best ever batter, surpassing even new record run-scorer Joe Root.
Brook became the first England man to make a Test triple century for 34 years in the astonishing defeat of Pakistan in Multan.
In the same Test, Root made 262, and in doing so he passed Sir Alastair Cook’s previous England best of 12,472 career runs.
Anderson, England’s greatest ever bowler and leading Test wicket-taker, believes 25-year-old Brook is the ideal blend of Root and another great, Kevin Pietersen.
“He’s on the way to being in the top three that I’ve played with,” Anderson said on his Tailenders podcast. “It’s Root, Pietersen and him. He’s definitely got all the attributes to overtake them.
“He’s just got everything. Without trying to big him up too much because he’s still really early in his Test career, I do think that he’s got the perfect amount of each of those two and that’s what will make him the best that we’ve ever had.”
It is high praise from Anderson, whose haul of 188 Test caps is another England record.
Along with Root and Pietersen, Anderson was also a team-mate of other outstanding England batters like Cook, Alec Stewart, Ian Bell, Michael Vaughan and Graham Thorpe.
Brook has 1,875 runs in 19 Tests and 31 innings. He has a chance to become the fastest Englishman to 2,000 Test runs, beating the 22 matches and 33 innings of the legendary Herbert Sutcliffe in 1928.
Pietersen, perhaps the best three-format batter to ever play for England, had 8,181 runs when his 104-Test career ended in 2014. As a comparison, he had 170 runs fewer than Brook after 19 Tests.
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