England star Harry Brook to use time in charge of Northern Superchargers to decide on future captaincy roles after being touted as replacement for Jos Buttler

Harry Brook wants to sample life in charge of Northern Superchargers in the Hundred next month before deciding whether to add the England white-ball captaincy to his bucket list.

Brook has been touted as a replacement for Jos Buttler, who spoke to Rob Key on Monday as part of the ECB managing director’s review of the limited-overs set-up following a pair of underwhelming World Cup defences in India and the Caribbean.

No decision is expected on the future of either Buttler or head coach Matthew Mott until after the third Test against West Indies, starting at Edgbaston on Friday- though speculation has long been rife that Brook is among the candidates.

Meanwhile, England’s former World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan, who has been linked with Mott’s job, told Sky Sports: ‘The timing is not right. Yes, I want to coach down the line, but I’ve got a young family and I spend a lot more time at home.’

Asked about his captaincy ambitions, Brook replied: ‘This is my first captaincy role with the Superchargers. We’ll see how that goes and then maybe I’ll have a different answer for you in a couple of months.’

He dismissed the question of whether England need to move on from Buttler and Mott: ‘Wow. That’s way above my pay grade.’

Brook’s cricket brain has impressed both the red- and white-ball set-ups ever since his international debut in early 2022, to the extent that he may yet leapfrog Test vice-captain Ollie Pope and take over once Ben Stokes retires.

His captaincy experience has been limited to England Under-19s and four T20 games with Yorkshire in 2022. But his blueprint for the Superchargers, where he will work alongside coach Andrew Flintoff, is straight from the Bazball playbook: ‘I’ll be a fairly chilled captain. All training will be optional. There’s nothing put on you as a player. Just be chilled, relaxed, go out there and express yourself.’

Not in his favour is an impossible fixture list which sees the various England teams barely getting a breather once the three-Test series starts against Sri Lanka next month. That’s followed by white-ball games against Australia, Test tours of Pakistan and New Zealand sandwiching a white-ball trip to the Caribbean and - in the new year -a limited-overs tour of India and the Champions Trophy in Pakistan.

First, though, Brook wants to build on the remarkable start he has made to his Test career, with the ICC rankings - updated after his first century on home soil, at Trent Bridge last week - placing him third behind Kane Williamson of New Zealand and Joe Root.

And he admitted that innings, central to England’s 241-run win, conjured up thoughts of his grandma, Pauline, who died earlier in the year. ‘As soon as I got it, it was like: “Yes, a hundred!” But a couple of moments later I got a bit emotional inside. I just didn’t show it. I was thinking about her. I did it all for my grandma.’

Brook’s superb 109 lifted his Test average to 62.54, second only to Don Bradman among batsmen to have played at least 20 innings. And the wide-ranging nature of his game has prompted questions about who, if anyone, he has tried to emulate.

‘I want to be my own batter,’ he said. ‘I want to be Harry Brook, not anybody else. But nowadays you have to take different parts of other batters and put it into your game. 

'There’s so many good players out there. An example is Rooty playing the ball so late, or AB de Villiers hitting all around the ground, Kevin Pietersen for his power.’

Brook’s first-innings dismissal in Nottingham, caught trying to paddle-sweep off-spinner Kevin Sinclair, looked like the kind of shot Pietersen might have played, inviting opprobrium. 

But there is method to everything Brook does. ‘I identified a gap behind square on the leg side and I wanted to manipulate the field to open other parts of the ground to score,’ he said. ‘Maybe I didn’t need to play that shot, but if I’d nailed it, they might have had to change the field.’

It can only be a matter of time before Brook is passing on his wisdom as captain of England.