Former England captain Geoffrey Boycott thinks that the Three-Lions’ white-ball skipper Harry Brook has the skill and potential to be a great cricket player like legendary Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, but he does not seem to be acting appropriately.
Brook, who has amassed over 3,000 runs in Test cricket, can have a respectable career if he keeps playing the way he does, but he has the potential to develop into a truly exceptional batter, according to Boycott.
“I’ve said before, and I’ll say again, I’ve seen a lot of players. I haven’t seen anybody with the talent he’s got for a long time. Enormous talent. The timing, the shot playing, he’s tall, big reach, but his thinking is just unbelievable,” Boycott said on the Geoffrey Boycott: An Extraordinary Innings podcast.
‘Brook Can Be Like Tendulkar And Lara’
Brook’s aggressive and occasionally reckless batting style has frequently drawn criticism. He has mostly adhered to his attacking approach, which has cost both him and England on multiple occasions. Several previous cricketers have pushed him to play according to the situation, especially in .
“If he wants to carry on playing that way, he’ll have a decent career, but he has the ability, if he could think better, to be in the realms of Lara and Tendulkar. And, whoa, that’s a bit special.
“To be up in that stratosphere is huge. There ain’t many above them, except (Don) Bradman, and that’s special. But he plays one-day cricket to every ball. He doesn’t have a look at the ball; he has to bash the first ball. He’ll just keep getting caught at mid-off and mid-on and daft places,” he added.
Boycott also disclosed that in 2025, Brook’s uncle came up to him and requested if he could talk to the batsman and help him get better. But Brook never got in touch with the former captain of England.
“His uncle came to me last year, and he said, ‘Would you have a word with him?’ Well, he asked me what I thought of him. I told him exactly this. He said, ‘Really?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ I said that much ability is rare, special.
“He said, ‘Would you have a word with him?’ I said, ‘It’s not for me to go to him. But if he asked me, of course I’d help. Why would I not? I gave him my number and never heard a word,” Boycott said.