England’s luck ebbed and flowed with Cook’s show
Mumbai:alastair Cook will leave the game as England’s most capped player and highest rungetter in Tests. Cook’s swansong features the same opponent he had encountered on his debut 12 years ago in Nagpur.
Cook’s best years as a batsman came between December 2009 and May 2013. No other batsman scored as many runs during this period --- 4015 runs in 44 matches. Out of his 32 hundreds, 16 were scored then.
England, who were led by Andrew Strauss and Cook, won 23 and lost only 10 of 44 Tests. Some of their wins included the Ashes win in Australia and 2-1 away victory against India. In the process, they reached the top of ICC’S Test rankings.
If his 118 contributed in England recording an innings win against South Africa in Durban in 2009, his 766 runs from five matches helped England to their first Ashes win in Australia after 24 years, in 2010-11.
His career-best 294 came during England’s 4-0 rout of India at home in 2011. This was also the series when they became No 1 in Tests. Cook’s finest moment came in 2012 when he hit three tons in four Tests to script his team’s first series win in India since 1984-85.
Form deserted him when England toured Australia in 2013, scoring 246 runs from 10 innings at 24.60. With Mitchell Johnson at his best, England lost the Ashes 5-0.
Cook’s struggle continued at home too as he could score only 78 runs against Sri Lanka in a two-test series that Angelo Mathews’ side won 1-0.
When England lost the Lord’s Test against India in 2014, Cook had gone 27 innings without reaching the three-figure mark.
He returned to form in the Southampton Test against India as England rallied to win the series 3-1. Since June 2017, Cook has managed 1197 at 34.20 from 20 matches. While England beat South Africa and West Indies 3-1 and 2-1, they slumped to a 4-0 Ashes defeat in Australia besides losing the two-test series (1-0) in New Zealand and the Lord’s Test against Pakistan in May.
Alastair’s batting directly influences England’s results. Here’s how