Brook can be England's best ever, says Anderson

James Anderson believes Harry Brook can become England’s best ever batter, surpassing even new record run-scorer Joe Root.

Brook became the first England man to make a Test triple century for 34 years in the astonishing defeat of Pakistan in Multan.

In the same Test, Root made 262, and in doing so he passed Sir Alastair Cook's previous England best of 12,472 career runs.

Anderson, England’s greatest ever bowler and leading Test wicket-taker, believes 25-year-old Brook is the ideal blend of Root and another great, Kevin Pietersen.

"He's on the way to being in the top three that I've played with," Anderson said on his Tailenders podcast. "It's Root, Pietersen and him. He's definitely got all the attributes to overtake them.

"He's just got everything. Without trying to big him up too much because he's still really early in his Test career, I do think that he's got the perfect amount of each of those two and that's what will make him the best that we've ever had."

It is high praise from Anderson, whose haul of 188 Test caps is another England record.

Along with Root and Pietersen, Anderson was also a team-mate of other outstanding England batters like Cook, Alec Stewart, Ian Bell, Michael Vaughan and Graham Thorpe.

Brook has 1,875 runs in 19 Tests and 31 innings. He has a chance to become the fastest Englishman to 2,000 Test runs, beating the 22 matches and 33 innings of the legendary Herbert Sutcliffe in 1928.

Pietersen, perhaps the best three-format batter to ever play for England, had 8,181 runs when his 104-Test career ended in 2014. As a comparison, he had 170 runs fewer than Brook after 19 Tests.

Root had been on track to break Cook's runs record for a number of years, especially in a stellar recent streak of form which has included 18 Test hundreds since the beginning of 2021.

The 33-year-old has 12,664 runs from 147 Tests and could eventually surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s world record of 15,921.

However, like Pietersen, Root was behind Brook after 19 Tests, with 1,447 runs at the same stage of his career.

Anderson, who retired from Test cricket in July, said: "Brook has definitely got the temperament of Joe Root and the technique, even, of Joe Root.

"But he's got the shots of both Root and Pietersen. He can destroy an attack if he wants to, he can play a longer innings if he needs to."

The run-scoring exploits of Brook and Root helped England set new landmarks in taking a 1-0 lead over Pakistan.

England's 823-7 declared was their highest total in Test cricket since 1938. The 556 England conceded in Pakistan’s first innings was the highest total any team has overturned to then go on and earn an innings victory.

Brook and Root shared a partnership of 454, England’s highest of all time for any wicket and the fourth-highest by any Test pair.

"The thing that's really similar between Joe and Harry is that they love batting," said Anderson. "They literally couldn't care less what format it is. They just want to bat.

"They want to have fun doing it. As much as Harry's the younger player and will be learning loads from Rooty, I still think Rooty learns from him as well.

"Joe's one of those sorts of players that wants to keep developing and bettering himself and he does watch other players and try to add bits to his game. I'm sure he's doing that with Harry."