England National Cricket Team’s white-ball captain Harry Brook opened up about his only Indian Premier League season, when he played for the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Brook came to India for the IPL 2023 season for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) with a lot of expectations but left with a bitter taste in his mouth, as he had to sustain criticism from the fans on and off the field.
Harry Brook failed to match the level of expectations
For years, Harry Brook has been considered one of the best white-ball batters across the formats. So when he joined SRH, fans expected a bag full of runs from him. But his maiden IPL season so far remains the only one in Brook’s career that did not go according to his plans. Despite a century against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), he ended the season with a batting average of 21.11
In a recent interview on BBC Sports, the England captain expressed that the situation was very tough for him to manage because of relentless criticism from the fans. It became very difficult to ignore that outside noise.
I got into a little bit of a rabbit hole: Harry Brook described the pressure situation during his only IPL spell
So, to regain focus on batting, Harry Brook tried to extract only the good from the criticisms. At the end of the day, that also did not work in h.
“I got into a little bit of a rabbit hole with scrutiny and social media when I was at the IPL. It didn’t help me as a person on the field or off the field. I decided not to stay away from social media, but also not to go out of my way to look at it,” he said in the interview.
“On the other hand, I actually feel it’s a little bit of a compliment if people are giving me scrutiny and have an opinion about my game. I know it’s not a nice thing to see people slagging you off, but it means people care and people think I can put in a better performance than I have done that day,” he added.
The middle-order batter concluded his stint for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, scoring only 190 runs in 11 matches and playing in as many innings with one century and a strike rate of 123.37.
A 2-year ban on Harry Brook in IPL
For the following seasons, the franchise retained him, but Brook himself skipped the season because of family issues, and in the following season, he was about to play for the Delhi Capitals but withdrew only a few days before the tournament opener to prioritise the matches for the England national team. As a result, he was handed a two-year ban.
He will be eligible to put his name into the IPL players’ auction in 2028, during the mega auction ahead of the IPL 2028 season. However, the batter himself does not feel any regret for withdrawing from the tournament, days before the 2025 season.