Alastair Cook, born on Christmas Day 1984, was well on his way to becoming England’s most prolific batsman when he was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2012.
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It is an innings Alastair Cook regards with “a tinge of disappointment”. That it brought him 294 career-best runs speaks volumes. Even after grinding down India at Edgbaston, he wanted more. He always wants more. It is the sign of a batsman of the highest calibre and discipline.
His year had begun with 189 at Sydney and the winning of the Ashes series. But fatalism stalks most batsmen. He made a staggering 766 runs in those five Tests; only Wally Hammond, with 905 in 1928/29, had compiled more for England in a series against Australia. It had to end some time, didn’t it? Cook was determined to scupper that assumption. In his next three Test innings, against Sri Lanka, he made 133, then 96, then 106. And so it went on. In 2011 alone, he scored 927 Test runs at an average of 84.
Only in long one-day innings does Cook feel the need to do that. His post- World Cup ascent to the 50-over captaincy was not a universally popular decision. And although his team finished the year poorly by losing 5-0 in India, they did defeat both Sri Lanka and India at home. What’s more, Cook scored 600 runs in the year at an average of 46 and, most importantly, with a strike-rate of 93. Previously it had been 71.
He had defied his critics. Not that he would crow. England cannot have produced too many more amiable and self-deprecating cricketers. In time, it will probably be confirmed that England never produced a more prolific Test batsman either. By the end of the 2011/12 series against Pakistan, aged only 27 and now a married man, Cook had 6,027 Test runs with 19 centuries; only Sachin Tendulkar had reached 6,000 at a younger age. His mentor and coach Graham Gooch’s national record of 8,900 runs stands little chance. And neither do the 22 centuries made by Hammond, Colin Cowdrey and Geoffrey Boycott. The struggles of 2010 feel like another lifetime.
