England and Australia began their 2023 edition of Ashes with the first test at Edgbaston. The sun was beating down as the entire stadium was filled with fans from both the teams. Ben Stokes won the toss and chose to bat first as chasing was going to be tough in the 4th innings. Australia were just coming off winning the World Test Championships and becoming the 1st team in the history of cricket to win all the ICC tournaments.
The story as it happened –
Harry Brook was batting on 32 off 36 balls with 4 fours in his knock. Brook was coming into the series after a mixed season of TATA IPL 2023 with Sunrisers Hyderabad. Brook was quick to get off and went after the Australian bowlers right from the start. The right handed batter has been one of the most leading and exciting talents in test cricket ever since his debut.
Harry Brook falls to a freak dismissal –
Nathan Lyon was bowling round the wicket to Harry Brook who was looking to be aggressive. The 2nd ball of the 38th over saw Lyon get the ball to turn and hit the thigh pad of Brook.
Alex Carey and Marnus Labuschagne were waiting for a catch only for the ball to tumble to the stumps. Brook watched in disbelief as the ball rolled on to the stumps and bowled him. The entire Australian was seen celebrating as England lost Brook for 32.
Joe Root steers England to safety –
England when to lunch after having lost 3 wickets with Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley being dismissed. Post lunch, England lost two more wickets, that of Brook and then Ben Stokes for 1 run. Hazlewood and Carey combined yet again to dismiss the English skipper.
Joe Root carried on and scored yet another half century as he went into tea with his Yorkshire teammate Jonny Bairstow. At the time of writing England were 263/5 in the 57th over with Root on 74 and Bairstow on 48.
Twitter reacts –
Cricket fans across the world were sad to see the way Harry Brook fell and took to Twitter to have their say.
A freak dismissal.
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 16, 2023
Live clips/Scorecard: https://t.co/TZMO0eJDwY pic.twitter.com/cIUQaANJ2x
That Harry Brook dismissal 🥲 pic.twitter.com/iTN2a1Tmlj
— England's Barmy Army 🏴🎺 (@TheBarmyArmy) June 16, 2023
Let's laugh at generational fl0p Harry brook 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/bOuqqh4BvS
— A_ (@Kohlifier) June 16, 2023
Bizarre dismissal that of Brook. But the amount of back spin it took after landing on the pitch the second time was 👀 #Ashes2023
— Jigar Mehta (@jigsactin) June 16, 2023
Oh my God I don't think I have ever seen that. Harry Brook is so so unlucky!#Ashes
— CricBlog ✍ (@cric_blog) June 16, 2023
A bizarre dismissal for Harry Brook as the ball hits his body, and dislodges the bails. UNLUCKY! 🥲
— Ritwik Ghosh (@gritwik98) June 16, 2023
📸: Sony LIV#HarryBrook #ENGvsAUS #Starc #Ashes2023 #Root #Stokes #Boland#Bazballpic.twitter.com/ef5HBTsLbn