Yorkshire CCC and England star Harry Brook on putting family first and being back with his mates at Headingley

“Both of those hundreds, and all the runs that I’ve scored so far this year, are dedicated to her,” he said in tribute to his late grandmother, Pauline.

In his first interview since Pauline passed away during the close season, which compelled him to miss England’s Test tour to India and an Indian Premier League assignment with Delhi Capitals, Brook spoke movingly about someone who had a profound effect on his life and on his love for cricket.

England had been preparing to travel to India from a training camp in the UAE when Brook got the sad news in January that Pauline had fallen ill and that precious time was short.

“When I came home from Abu Dhabi it was a very tough time, and I’m glad I did come home,” said Brook, 25.

“Obviously it was a big decision to make. I haven’t played hundreds of games for England, so to just turn down a big Test tour like that as well was a big decision to make, but she comes before all of that.

“She would have come out there a couple of years ago, so I had to come back and support her as much as I could.

“It was a very tough period but, like I say, I’m glad I came back and I was with my family and I was with her, and I managed to take her out for a coffee and whatnot in that first week when I was back.

“I was still training with a mindset of trying to get back out for the last couple of Tests, all being well.

“Obviously it all disintegrated fairly quickly so that didn’t happen, but I just tried to support her as best as I could and everyone around us.”

Since his grandmother's death, Brook has concentrated on cricket since the start of the season, reeling off two centuries and a fifty in six innings.

It has helped being back in the bosom of his close friends at Yorkshire, men he has grown up with and, in some cases, went to school with.

“My grandmother didn’t pass away too long ago, so to be with my family for the last couple of months, and to be with my mates (at Yorkshire), has made it all a lot easier,” Brook added.

“It’s been awesome to play with mates again. Some of my closest mates are here; I went to school with a few of them, and then I grew up playing for Yorkshire with loads of them, so it’s been good to be back.

"I love playing for Yorkshire. I wish I could play more for Yorkshire but, obviously, it’s a good thing that I haven’t done (in terms of representing England), so hopefully that continues, to be honest, but it’s always awesome to play for Yorkshire.”

Brook is scheduled to play one more match - the Championship game against Glamorgan at Headingley that starts on Friday - before attention turns to white-ball commitments - “if selected”, as he somewhat endearingly puts it.

That qualification is surely superfluous and the multi-format maestro can look forward to a T20 series at home to Pakistan, followed by the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and USA, the squad for which is announced on Tuesday.

Pondering England’s World Cup chances, Brook said: “I think we’ve got one of the strongest, if not the strongest amount of players we can pick from in the country.

“There’s so many players who are phenomenal at white-ball cricket. There’s people who are nowhere near the team or the squads who could get in the team, so I think we’re in a good place.

“Obviously we haven’t spent much time together recently, but we get together and play Pakistan at the end of May, so we’ll have a bit of time together before the World Cup then. I’m looking forward to it - if selected.”

As ever, the question for Yorkshire is: how do they cope in the absence of Brook and their international players?

Joe Root also reached a century against Derbyshire on Saturday, sharing a fourth-wicket stand of 201 with Brook as Yorkshire declared on 450-5 before the visitors reached 190-3 at stumps on day two, but Brook believes the squad is packed with quality.

“There’s some phenomenal players in the squad,” he said. “If you look down, there’s Will Luxton as well who’s scored quite a few runs at the start of this year for the second team, so he’s definitely putting his name in the hat.

“‘Wharts’ (James Wharton) is a very good player as we’ve seen so far this year; he dominated on pre-season from what I saw, then he batted really well in a warm-up game and then he got a hundred last week in the second team. The lads are raring to go.”

Brook is confident that Yorkshire can justify their favourites’ tag and return to the Championship’s top flight.

“Absolutely, I have no doubt that we will,” he added. “We’ve just got to try and figure out ways to get wickets when the pitch goes flat and the ball’s not the way you want it to be, but we’ve definitely got a good enough side.”

No play was possible on day three at Headingley due to heavy rain.

Umpires Martin Saggers and Hassan Adnan determined at 12.45pm that conditions were unplayable.