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Is Harry Brook already better than Kevin Pietersen?

· Opinion

The story

The National reports Ben Stokes’s claim, made after Harry Brook’s T20 hundred against Sri Lanka, that even Kevin Pietersen’s genius could not come close to Brook’s talent. It sets Brook’s Test average of over 50 against Pietersen’s career 47, and leaves Pietersen the 2005 Ashes.

The National · 18 September at 08:24 BSTStokes believes Pietersen couldn’t ‘come close’ to Harry Brook’s talent … but KP will always have 2005 AshesRead the full story

Seventy innings into his Test career, Harry Brook has 3,610 runs at an average of 53.1. Kevin Pietersen had 3,286 runs at 49.0 when he reached the same mark in 2008, and Brook has made his at a strike rate of 86 against Pietersen’s 63.

Nearly half of Brook’s dismissals have come between 30 and 99. That is a bigger share than any batter of his standard to arrive in Test cricket since 2004.

The argument

Ben Stokes started it. “I don’t even think the genius of KP could come close to what Harry Brook has talent-wise,” the England captain said, before softening it a little: “Bit harsh on KP actually both are freak talents but Brook better IMO is my point.”

The Stick to Cricket panel took it from there. Alastair Cook said Brook could surpass Pietersen’s legacy if he dominates the big series the same way, and pointed to Pietersen’s biggest moments, where he “delivered”. Darren Gough worried about the copycats: “You can’t have players who aren’t as talented as Harry Brook trying to do what he does.”

Harsha Bhogle had already made the case for the prosecution. “I can’t remember another player of the standard of Harry Brook who is, as often, an accomplice in his own dismissal,” he wrote on 10 September, during the Edgbaston Test against Pakistan in which Brook was run out for 75.

Seventy innings each

Brook’s average has been higher than Pietersen’s at every stage since his fifth Test innings. It sat around 60 for most of his first 45 innings and has drifted down since, while Pietersen’s moved between the low 40s and the mid 50s through his first three years.

Test batting average, innings by inningsInnings 20 to 70 of each career

Harry Brook 53.1Kevin Pietersen 49.0Joe Root 55.2

The gap is wider than 53.1 against 49.0 suggests. Batters at Nos. 4 to 6 averaged 36.2 in the Tests played during Brook’s career so far, against 40.5 during Pietersen’s first 70 innings. Brook has scored more runs, more quickly, in a harder time to bat.

He has also made bigger hundreds. His ten have averaged 155, headed by the 317 at Multan in 2024. Pietersen’s first eleven averaged 141, with 226 against West Indies at Headingley the highest.

Bhogle’s charge

The case against Brook is in how his innings end. Of his 68 dismissals, 32 have come between 30 and 99, or 47%. Pietersen’s share at the same point was 34%, and Joe Root’s was 38%. For batters at Nos. 4 to 6 in Tests during Brook’s career, it is 31%.

Out between 30 and 99Share of dismissals in the first 70 Test innings, batters averaging 45 or more who debuted since 2004
  1. Harry Brook47%
  2. Angelo Mathews46%
  3. Marnus Labuschagne46%
  4. Mike Hussey44%
  5. Babar Azam39%
  6. Travis Head39%
  7. Joe Root38%
  8. Jonathan Trott38%
  9. Gautam Gambhir37%
  10. Hashim Amla36%
  11. Rohit Sharma36%
  12. Kevin Pietersen34%
  13. Cheteshwar Pujara31%
  14. Michael Clarke31%
  15. Steve Smith29%
  16. David Warner27%
  17. Ajinkya Rahane26%

Among the 17 batters who debuted since 2004 and averaged 45 or more across their first 70 Test innings, Brook tops the list. Angelo Mathews and Marnus Labuschagne come closest. Steve Smith was out between 30 and 99 in 29% of his dismissals at the same stage.

Some of the near misses are fresh in the memory: 99 against India at Headingley last summer, 91 against Pakistan at Headingley last month, 85 at The Oval in the 2023 Ashes and 84 at Sydney in January. He has been out between 80 and 99 six times, twice as often as Pietersen at the same stage.

Pietersen was the better finisher. Of his 21 scores past 50 in his first 70 innings, 11 became hundreds. Brook has turned 10 of his 30 into hundreds, about the rate for Nos. 4 to 6 in his time.

Twenty innings without a hundred

Bhogle’s line landed during Brook’s leanest spell. His last hundred was 111 against India at The Oval in the summer of 2025. In 20 innings since, he has passed 50 seven times without reaching three figures, and averaged 41.6.

Harry Brook’s Test innings since his last hundredRuns, from Perth in November 2025 to Edgbaston this month

A hundredNot out

After his first 50 innings, Brook averaged 57.6 with ten hundreds. The runs have kept coming since, but the innings keep ending before the big score arrives.

Where Pietersen still leads

Cook’s point about the biggest moments holds up. Brook has played 19 Test innings against Australia and averages 40.1 against them, with a highest score of 85 and no hundred.

Pietersen averaged 53.5 against Australia in his first 70 innings. His 158 at The Oval secured the 2005 Ashes, and he made another 158 at Adelaide a year later.

The verdict

Bhogle is right. No batter of Brook’s standard to debut since 2004 has been dismissed between 30 and 99 as often, and the last 20 innings have brought seven fifties and no hundred. Pietersen, who is now mentoring England’s batters, would be well placed to explain the difference between a fifty and a hundred.

On the Brook or KP question, the record backs Stokes. At the same point of their careers, Brook has made more runs, at a higher average, in a harder era to bat, and more than a third faster. Pietersen finished with 47.3 across 181 innings, so 70 innings in was close to his level for good.

What Brook lacks is the innings Cook was talking about. Pietersen owns an Ashes-winning hundred; Brook has yet to make any hundred against Australia.

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