Harry Brook to return in Yorkshire’s season opener after pulling out of £380,000 IPL deal
Harry Brook will make his return to cricket with Yorkshire in the County Championship next week having withdrawn from the Indian Premier League after the death of his grandmother.
Brook has had a three-month break from the game after pulling out of England’s five-Test tour of India last month. He has also withdrawn from a deal worth INR 4 crore (£380,000) with Delhi Capitals in the IPL to spend more time with his family after the death of his grandmother Pauline, who he described as his “rock”, in a statement earlier this month.
Instead of playing for the Capitals, he will turn out for Yorkshire in Division Two of the Championship, starting with their season opener against Leicestershire next Friday, in what appears a major boost for the competition.
The Yorkshire website reported that Brook had “indicated his desire to start the campaign and play a good number of County Championship matches before England’s T20 World Cup campaign in the Caribbean and USA through June”.
England do not play Test cricket until July (against the West Indies), but Brook will be a key member of the T20 team that defends the World Cup title.
“Now that Brooky isn’t going to the IPL, I suspect he’s going to be available for us for the first few games, including [against] Leicestershire,” Yorkshire coach Ottis Gibson said.
Gibson also indicated that Joe Root would play for Yorkshire in the early part of the season, although perhaps not as soon as the Leicestershire game, having played all five Tests in India.
“He [Brook] loves playing for us, and Rooty is also going to be available for some games in that early period,” said Gibson. “Having those two playing for us would be special.”
Other England batsmen such as Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley are likely to start the season with their counties, sitting out just one Championship match in the initial block of eight rounds in eight weeks before the Vitality Blast.
Captain Ben Stokes is likely to play one or two games for newly-promoted Durham in the early part of the season but he will be carefully managed as he return to full all-rounder status.
Speaking at Lord’s last week while giving the Cowdrey Lecture as part of his podcast Tailenders, James Anderson confirmed that he would not play for Lancashire for the first few games, but would be building up to the first Test of the summer. There will be keen competition for places among a large crop of contracted bowlers, with only Chris Woakes at the IPL among those pushing for Test places.
