Former Indian wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik heaped praise on Harry Brook after the swashbuckling batter scored a fine century on the fourth day of the fifth Test match against England at the Kennington Oval, London. Brook scored an attacking knock of 111 runs off 98 balls and thus played a key role in putting England in the driver’s seat.

The pugnacious batter scored 14 fours and two sixes in his blistering knock. Brook took an aggressive approach from the get-go and took his chances against the Indian bowlers.

The 26-year-old also had the rub of the green on his side as Mohammed Siraj touched the boundary rope after taking the catch at deep fine leg when Brook was only on 19. 

Dinesh Karthik said on Sky Sports Cricket, “He’s the poster boy for Bazball. He just comes out there, plays with a lot of flair, takes on the bowlers and does it his way. The beauty is, he is the kind of batsman, when he gets out, you are going to think, ‘what is that shot?’. But, when gets going, you are like ‘wow, that is serious talent’. We are always going to keep jumping on both sides of the fence.

“As long as he trusts his game, the consistency is there to see. He is setting up Test matches, the speed at which he plays. He’s quite hard to bowl at because he’s pretty unpredictable,” Karthik added.

Brook added 195 runs with veteran batter Joe Root, who scored a fine knock of 107 runs. Karthik noted Root went under the radar while he was batting with Harry Brook.

“With Harry Brook, you almost feel you could have a dismissal round the corner. The problem with Joe Root is, he’s one of those who doesn’t look like he’s scoring runs. But at the end of it, he scored fifty, he’s build a partnership of 100-120. Only when Joe Root got out, I really believed India have a chance here.”

England ended the fourth day’s play at 339-6 and need another 35 runs to win the fifth Test on the final day.