Alastair Cook’s cricketing career – the longest individual journey in English Test history ended on the final Test match of India vs England 5-match Test series in 2018 (September 7-11).
The left-handed opener, known for his consistency, played his last test match in the Oval Test against India.
Tap here to listen to the Twitter reactions after Alastair Cook’s retirement announcement. There are some crazy ones to watch out for!
Now let’s dive straight into some of the Test records of the legendary batsman, Cookie!
I tried to break in Cook’s Test records based on his roles.
Alastair Cook’s Test Career Stats
Getting into the league of Players with 150+ Test Matches is a compelling achievement.
But Cook did it in straight matches! This makes Alastair Cook hold the record for the most consecutive Test matches played by any cricketer in cricket history. He had never missed a long format game for his national side since he missed his 3rd Test match.
In total, Alastair Cook has played 161 Test matches, next to only six other legends.
Cook ended as the 5th in the list of most run scorers in Test cricket; he also holds the record for the most run scored by any left-handed batsman in Test cricket.
He overtook Kumar Sangakkara in the last innings he played in his Test career.
Alastair Cook has the most centuries (15) in 2nd Innings of Test matches.
Alastair Cook as Test Captain
Alastair Cook became the England Captain following the retirement of another successful English Captain – Andrew Strauss, on 29 August 2012.
He went on to lead the team until early 2017, when Joe Root took over.
Here are the stats for the top England Test Captains:
| CAPTAINS | MATCHES | WON | LOST | DRAW | WIN% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Root | 64 | 27 | 26 | 11 | 42.19 |
| Michael Vaughan | 51 | 26 | 11 | 14 | 50.98 |
| Andrew Strauss | 50 | 24 | 11 | 15 | 48.00 |
| Alastair Cook | 59 | 24 | 22 | 13 | 40.68 |
| Peter May | 41 | 20 | 10 | 11 | 48.78 |
| Mike Brearley | 31 | 18 | 4 | 9 | 58.06 |
| Nasser Hussain | 45 | 17 | 15 | 13 | 37.78 |
| Michael Atherton | 54 | 13 | 21 | 20 | 24.07 |
| Ray Illingworth | 31 | 12 | 5 | 14 | 38.71 |
| Len Hutton | 23 | 11 | 4 | 8 | 47.83 |
Alastair Cook holds the record for the most matches played as an England captain – 7th most overall.
Cook has a win% of 40.67.
As an England captain, Alastair Cook (24) ranks 2nd for most wins as England captain, next to Michael Vaughan(26).
Cook has scored 4844 runs in 111 innings while captaining the side – the most by any England captain & 6th overall.
Here’s a tweet on Alastair Cook’s awards & recognition:
Alastair Cook – The best ever England batsman (Statistically)
Alastair Cook holds the record for
- Most matches for England in Tests.
- Most runs for England in Tests. (Top 10)
- Most centuries for England in Tests. (Top 10)
- Most catches for England in Tests.
- The first England player to take part in 50 Test victories.
- The only Englishman to score 4 100s before his 22nd birthday.
- The only Englishman (2nd Overall) to score 1,000 runs in a maiden year.
- The youngest Englishman to score 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 & 6000 Test runs!
- The youngest cricketer to reach 6,000, 7,000, 8,000, 9,000, 10,000, 11,000 and 12,000 Test Runs.
Alastair Cook as an Opening Batsman
Alastair Cook played almost his entire career as an opening batsman for England.
Cook was involved in seventy-seven 100 partnerships in Tests – fourth highest overall.
Read our exclusive section on partnership records in cricket.
As an opener, Cook holds the record for
- Most innings played by any opener in Tests (278)
- Most runs scored as an opener in Tests (11744)
- The only player to cross the 10000 runs mark in a Test while playing as an opener.
- The highest percentage of innings played as an opener for someone who played this long—opened the batting in 278 innings out of 291 played. That’s more than 95%.
The records he broke in his last Test Match
Good thing that I waited till his last test innings to write this article. He added a century in his last game, overcoming Kumar Sangakkara’s run tally and became the most runs by any left-hander in Test cricket & 5th overall.
Alastair Cook became the 5th player to score centuries in both his debut and the last Test match.
He scored (60 & 104*) vs India in his debut match at Nagpur in 2006 & scored (71 & 147) vs India in his last Test match in London in September 2018.
Also, his last century makes him the player with the most hundreds in the 2nd innings of a team (15) and the most hundreds in the 3rd innings in Test cricket (13).
Wrapping it up!
Not only a world-class opening batsman, but Alastair Cook has also been a brilliant slip fielder and one of the best Non-Asian batsmen to bat in Asian conditions.
Check out this tweet!
