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On this day, December 25,1984: One of England’s greatest Test batter Sir Alastair Cook was born. Cook was Test captain of England from 2012 to 2017 and also captained for 69 one-day internationals from 2010 to 14. Cook finished off his Test career with a hundred against India at The Oval in September 2018 and was given a knighthood for services to cricket a few months later. One of his most crucial series was when he scored 766 runs in seven innings during the 2010-11 Ashes tour to help England to their first series win in Australia for 24 years.
His Test batting average was 45.35 and at the age of 33. He averaged 48.94 in Australia with five hundreds in 20 Tests. 294 was his career-best score, against India at Edgbaston in 2011 when England went to No.1 in the world Test rankings. He ended his career with 33 Test centuries, Five of those were double-hundreds.
Cook rose to limelight at the age of 14 when he made a century as a guest, making up the numbers for the MCC, against his own Bedford School team. He made an unbeaten 104 at the second time of asking on debut against India in Nagpur after 60 at his first attempt. One of his great series was in 2012 in India where he helped England to a series win in India. He has played 352 first-class matches and scored 26,643 runs in First Class Cricket.
Sir Alastair Cook also played 92 ODIs, scoring five centuries and 19 fifties. He also played four Twenty20 internationals. Cook was one of youngest player in history to score 6,000, 7,000, 8,000, 9,000, 10,000, 11,000 and 12,000 runs in Test cricket. Cook finished his ODI career with 3204 runs in 92 matches. His Test career numbers read 12472 runs in 161 matches and he is no doubt one of the Greatest Test players produced by England.
