Joe Root praises Harry Brook as 'masterclass' after England's three-century heroics | England cricket team

A day after making history as England's all-time leading Test run-scorer, Joe Root watched Harry Brook eclipse him with 317 innings before describing his Yorkshire team-mate's performance as a “masterclass” and adding: “Believe so I don’t. “It will be the last time we see him with a monster score.”

Brooks' score was England's best since 1990 and the fifth highest of all time, but he said he was unaware of the records he was breaking: “I just wanted to surpass my father's highest score of 210.” The partnership of 454 between Brook and Root is England's highest ever and highest ever for the fourth wicket and helped England to the colossal first innings total of 823 declared for seven, their highest since 1938. “I don't think I've ever been told by one.” heard such a score,” said Brook. After scoring 556 in the first innings, Pakistan finished at 152 for six, still 115 away from letting England beat again.

In six innings on two tours to Pakistan, Brook has now scored four centuries and an 87, at an average of 130.83. “I am very glad he was born in England and not Pakistan because his record here is just a joke,” Root said. “I think one of the best things is to go back to conditions where you used to have success and double that. To see him get another massive score here is great, but he has such a complete game: he can score around the wicket, he bowls well, spins well and has high pace, and that's a pretty good recipe to score runs.

“The one thing he's always had is great ball-playing hands and he's worked really hard on how late he plays the ball, how much control he has and how solid his defense is.” He has a really good understanding of how he wants to score his runs and how he will make it very difficult for the competition. This was simply a masterclass in that. He had scored 210 points without breaking a sweat – well, he’s completely exhausted, but you know what I mean.”

Pakistan's challenge going forward in this series is not just to avoid a sixth straight defeat, but also to find a way to break Brook's winning streak. “I probably thought about it for 12 hours,” said Tim Nielsen, her high-performance coach. “He just plays so well. He has so much power, he is well organized, he puts a lot of pressure on the opposing bowling team. You may need to give us a few days to find a solution to this.”

With spinner Abrar Ahmed admitted to hospital with a fever on Wednesday night and still there at the end of play on Thursday, England may only need to take three wickets on Friday to secure victory. “We got a little mixed up today, there’s no doubt about that,” Nielsen said. “Everyone is a bit disappointed tonight, but there are some good, young, enthusiastic cricketers who are just in the early stages of their careers and if they learn anything, they learn that Test cricket is hard.” And that is Not a bad lesson, because it doesn’t get any easier.”

Root was dismissed for 262 after further narrowing the gap between him and the four players still above him on the all-time Test run-scorers list. “The biggest factor for me is how many games can we play and win now for the rest of my career?” he said. “The excitement that keeps you coming back and making you want to come to training is opportunities like tomorrow. “I can't wait to be back and hopefully experience something really special as a group.”