Cricket is a sport of wonderful contrasts and during the Melbourne Test we saw the beauty of this in Alastair Cook and David Warner. Here are two champions who are performing the same job for their team and yet could not be more different in terms of personality or the way they go about their business. “Finding a way” is a very good coaching phrase in cricket. It denotes the individuality of this team sport. There is no one-size-fits-all route to success, rather a unique path that each player must take to get the best out of themselves. What works for you is the key. And the two openers I mention, who both put on fine shows at the MCG, are very good examples of this.

Cook’s unbeaten 244 over nearly 11 hours at the crease was a classic of his genre. He was the first to admit an innings like this should have come sooner in this Ashes tour. But as a firm believer in the primacy of each Test match and there being no dead-rubbers, I take issue with anyone who saw the series scoreline as somehow detracting from his efforts here.

Opening the batting against the freshest bowlers and the hardest ball for all but a handful of his 151 caps, delivering in all conditions and sitting as the only opener in the top six all-time run-scorers marks him down as a great of the game. His skill comes in his mental fortitude and impeccable fitness. Batting for as long as he can should be extremely draining. And yet he barely breaks sweat.

My first encounter with Cook was on the 2005 Ashes tour when, as a 20-year-old Essex kid, he belted an attack containing myself, Brett Lee, Michael Kasprowicz and Stuart MacGill for 214 at just under a run a ball. From that day through to now he has always played the ball and never the bowler at the top of his mark. Sounds obvious? Maybe, but the weaker batsmen don’t always achieve this.

Absorbing pressure doesn’t just come on the field but off it, too, and it is hard not to respect how Cook has stayed so level during his 11 years as an international cricketer. There were always going to be ups and downs – few players of such longevity cruise through from start to finish – and he has had a few, both in terms of his place at times and the inevitable strains of four years of captaincy.

My hunch is that he is very good at blocking out much of the noise. He is not on social media and most likely doesn’t read the sport sections of the newspapers bar the rugby pages. He will, of course, reflect on his own performances and listen to confidants but his ability to reset and keep a healthy perspective is impressive and it will make him a strong lieutenant for Joe Root right now.

We crossed paths in the United Arab Emirates in 2015, when he played for MCC against Yorkshire – a time he was under the pump about the Kevin Pietersen saga and his captaincy. You would not have known it from the chat we had. It was typical laid-back stuff, with inquiries about the best young bowlers I had seen in the county game and a bit of family talk. He just seemed a lovely and genuine bloke.

David Warner keeps a close eye on the ball after edging it down the leg side. Photograph: Morgan Hancock/Action Plus via Getty Images

Now a lot is made of Warner’s character and it is true that you often don’t know whether you will get the aggressive Bull persona or the peace-loving Reverend. Personally I prefer to see more of the Bull on the cricket field, ruffling feathers and getting stuck into the opposition. I know he has huge respect for the game and his opponents deep down, even when he pushes hard at the line.

But it was his adaptability that, for me, came to the fore during the fourth Test. His first-innings century transcended the conditions – he had made 103 of the 135 runs scored when he was second man out – while his 83 in the second dig, though ended by a loose shot, was comfortably his slowest half-century and saw him override his natural inclination to just brutalise bowling attacks with a more watchful approach built on a rock-solid defence.

Don’t forget, Warner has essentially learned the first-class game at Test level, with just eight Sheffield Shield matches before his debut in 2011 and only 12 since. And when he first played international cricket in the white-ball formats, he hadn’t turned out in first-class cricket at all. Scratch below the brash exterior and you find a deep-thinking, hardworking cricketer.

Now, Cook may have been fast-tracked from an early age for a Test debut in 2006 but by this stage he had still played nearly 40 first-class matches. Two different paths. Two different players. Two different characters. And yet both have mastered Test cricket in their own unique way.

Two other contrasting batsmen are Joe Root and Steve Smith at No4, although here there is a bit of a gap opening up due to the former’s struggle to consistently convert half-centuries into huge innings. There were many great players in my era but bowlers, almost to a man, would rank Brian Lara above the lot because of his ability to just go on and on when set through that sheer ruthlessness.

Smith has hit that level, with his unbeaten 102 in the second innings a phenomenal 23rd Test century from the 45 times he has passed 50. Root, meanwhile, has just seen another half-century go unconverted to sit at 13 from 48. If he wants to join his opposite number as one of the greats of the game, he now needs to find a way to become even more single-minded about his batting.