







"The rate at which we play test, I could break Sachins's records"-- Alastair Cook





PowerPlay:- Conquering the Everest! !





Alastair Cook went past the 11000 test runs mark in the recently concluded India vs England Test series, Becoming the youngest ever player and first from his country to achieve the feat.





With that achievement a new series of talks have started to do rounds in cricketing circles on whether Cook can break the threshold of 15921 Runs set by the legendary Master or even the 200 tests matches mark, only time will tell but with that being said lets look at the various possibilities, probabilities and statistics on the feasibility of such an assumption.













First Slip:- Cook the English Talisman !

On March 1, 2006 A tall, slender looking young man, 21 years of age, Alastair Nathan Cook made his debut against India at Nagpur going past fifties in both innings of his first test and scoring a Ton in the second innings he announced to the world that he was here to leave a mark on cricketing history forever.





10 years down the line Cook holds all the major English batting records worth holding, celebrating just 32nd of his birthdays a week ago he holds the record for -





Most test matches for an Englishman

Most test runs for an Englishman

Most test fifties for an Englishman

Most test centuries for an Englishman

Played in most English test wins

In 140 test matches Cook has scored a mammoth 11057 Runs at an average of 46.46 with 30 test hundreds along side his name.



That average may not impress a lot of people but considering that this man plays most of his cricket in England where opening the batting and playing against the new and ferociously swinging ball is probably the toughest batting job that 46.46 thus look a commendable effort.





In due course of time Joe Root may be able to break a few of those and many more but that looks a distant story as of now. With those and many more achievements at this young age Alastair Cook has brought the insurmountable peak under vicinity.





Second Slip:- Why Cook does stand a chance!

The biggest advantage going in Cook's favor is his Age, he has just turned 32 and if he can just push himself on for a few more years the target may start to look conquerable.players like Misbah-ul-haq and Brad Hogg have shown that if you desire u can still perform at the age of 40(though Cook won't need to go till 40) and don't even get me started on Shahid Afridi, the players who made their debut alongside Afridi have their kids playing under 19s!!!

The other advantage is the country he plays for, England is probably the only country left which still attracts full house for test matches, they take test cricket very seriously and hence end up playing most number of test matches every year(almost 13, which means Cook will require less than 5 years from here on to break the 200 tests mark and he would still be 37)

Cook doesn't play limited overs cricket anymore so that does give him some nice breaks in between to freshen up.

Evidence suggests us that barring injuries the possibility of an elite test player to suddenly lose his art of making test runs is very minimal at whatever given age, "Form is temporary, Class is permanent" stands best for test cricket.

Cook has already gone through a prolonged slump in his career which every player who enjoys a long test run has to go through. If Cook does end up playing 200 tests He sould be mighty close to Sachin's 15921 though 51 hundreds look a distant thought.







Extra Cover:- Not the First time!

Not the first time that people are asking can 15921 be surpassed, every time a player passes 12000 mark the questions begin to raise, assumptions start being made





People asked it of Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis, Chanderpaul even Sangakkara and Jayawardene. at one point in time greame smith also looked to be in with a chance but he called off his career very early(by Asian standards!)





Many people had their eyes set on it but as of now 15921 still remains a tall mount everest beyond the reach of any where Sachin sits at the top waiting for company!





Deep Extra Cover:- How our Fab four stands!

so what can we say about the Fab four of modern day cricket- Virat Kohli , Steve Smith, Joe root, Kane Williamson.





All of the four at the moment are in between 4000-5000 test runs and 26-28 years of age with 50-56 matches under their belt,



The stats look quite similar while you got to consider that Virat Kohli was inducted relatively late in test cricket due to the t hen star studded Indian test line-up and even after starting on he did not have a great start averaging around 35 in his initial years was just not This Virat Kohli hence He happens to be the oldest with least runs in test cricket among Fab Four though his recent form is nothing short of bradmanisque form, averaged over 75 in 2016 in Test Cricket still at the moment I believe ODI records look far more sightable for Kohli than the test ones but Again with Virat Kohli you never know, similarly Steven Smith didn't even start as a pure Batsman.





Hence at this point in time it looks a bit too early to compare this four against 15921, two three years down the line and we should have fairer idea about who stands where.





. Third Slip:- Not a walk in the park for Cook

On the basis of what we have read till now a general perception developing in your mind would be that Sachin's record are all set to be broken by Alastair Cook while they still may be but its definitely not going to be a walk in the park for Cook.





Longevity:-

“Seventy-odd Test matches now seems a long way away and if I am brutally honest the more times you pack your bags to leave your family at home you do question how long you can keep doing it for.”- Alastair Cook on Bangladesh tour of 2016

The problem with non Asian batsman is that they do not tend to last as long as their Asian counterparts, not that they are any short on passion for the game but its more like professionalised passion (don't try to look for it in the dictionary!!) everything is planned in a more comprehensive way than what a typical Asian batsman or a board would do and definitely apart from physical fatigue a sportsman suffers a lot from the emotional fatigue.

Consistency:-

It would be important to see for how long can cook keep scoring with this consistency, one lean patch at this point in his career and it could mean curtains for Cook and his dream. the talks of handing over the captaincy to root are getting stronger each day and once the inevitable happens it would be interesting to see for how Cook can keep himself in the team purely as a Batsman.





Injuries:-

Cook has been blessed with a career that has been relatively injury free, he will have to work very hard on fitness of his body and hope for some luck from the almighty as again one major injury and it could mean curtains for Cook.

it has happened to many- ask Michael Vaughan - Ravi shastri played 80 test matches, Hundreds in England, Australia, West Indies and Pakistan yet played his final test at the age of 31, Cook will have to be Vary of it.





Death Overs:- Final Take on it

I personally think it sounds two years earlier to discuss to even make an assumption but it can surely not be denied that with his consistency and achievements Cook has definitely invoked a debate which most players never even get close to and hence He deserves a lot of appreciation for his efforts while on pure stats and probabilities it looks possible for him to reach 15921 but I am a little scepticle about it on the practical fronts taking nothing away from Cook though.





for an instance if i do assume that Cook will overtake Tendulkar, will cook ever be able have that Aura that Persona which Sachin possessed, will Cook ever be able to entice a plethora of emotions in a billion people by just a mere swing of his bat, will Cook ever get a standing ovation from the whole of the stadium being out on "zero", will the chants of cook be able to reach even hundredth of "sachiiiiiiiin....sachiiin".



Will cook ever be able to control the emotions of a billion people with just a bat of willow in hand, will cook's any walk down the pavilion could give the same goosebumps as Sachin's did,

will Cook's getting out on 99 ever send a million in grief and lock themselves in a room for two days, will Cook's getting out on 99 lead to a sudden boost in cross-country sales of television sets two days later(as the older ones were shattered then and there) and even the sellers won't be happy over it!!.........Nooooooohhhhh...........Not quite......!!















Stars can be replaced, legends can be replaced, Not Gods......................

Extra Innings!-

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