Alastair Cook

Alastair Cook – The consistent player from England

England batsman Alastair Cook’s 12-year Test career has come to an end. He finished, not only as England’s highest run-getter but also as the fifth-highest run-scorer in the format. The 33-year-old who has called time off his career after playing 161 Tests, has so far scored 12,472 runs at an average of 45.35 with 33 hundreds and 57 half centuries.

Nothing describes Cook’s ability to score runs better than his high scores in Test cricket. He has more Test centuries than any other English batsman to have ever played the game. More than the number of centuries, what’s more impressive is his hunger for big runs even after scoring a hundred. England’s batting coach – Graham Gooch – insisted on his batsmen to score many hundreds and not just be content with a few centuries. Cook is the player who learnt those lessons to perfection and has 7 scores of 150 including 2 double centuries. While his highest score of 294 against India at Birmingham in 2011 was a marathon knock which showcased all his qualities – patience, class, technique and ability to bat long, his 122 against the same opponent on a rank turner at Mumbai in 2012 elevated him to the league of legends.

Captaincy Significance & his career so far -

One of the high points of his captaincy will certainly be him leading England to a 2-1 series win against India, played in India back in 2012. He successfully used the spin duo of Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar during that series. Not just captaincy, Cook also excelled at the batting front during the 2012 series scoring, 176 at Motera, 122 at Mumbai and 190 at Kolkata.

It was evident right from his Test debut that Cook was someone who would make it big. He started his Test career with a century against India in 2006, and also went on to score centuries in his first appearances against Pakistan, West Indies and Bangladesh and also became the second youngest player to get 5000 runs in Test matches, following after the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. He suffered a loss of form in 2008, but recovered the very next season and rose rapidly up the ranks in world cricket. His consistency with the bat made him the obvious choice for captaincy after Andrew Strauss, and his game attained new heights after the responsibility was thrust on him. Cook has made 6 centuries from his first 7 Tests as captain, a stat made even more astounding given that 6 of those Tests were played in the sub-continent. 

But the former England captain, who has played in 161 Tests in total, has recently struggled for runs recently and averages a meager 18.92 from nine Tests this year.