Alastair Cook

Alastair Cook

Personal information
Full name	Alastair Nathan Cook
Born	25 December 1984 (1984-12-25) Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England
Nickname	Woody, Cooky, Chef, Golden Boy, Ali, The Run-Machine
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Batting style	Left-hand
Bowling style	Right-arm off break
Role	Opening batsman, England Test and ODI captain
International information
National side	England
Test debut (cap 630)	1 March 2006 v India
Last Test	13 December 2012 v India
ODI debut (cap 196)	28 June 2006 v Sri Lanka
Last ODI	11 January 2013 v India
ODI shirt no.	26
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2002	Bedfordshire
2003	Essex Cricket Board
2003–present	Essex (squad no. 26)
2004–2007	MCC
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	110	92	210	150
Runs scored	8,434	3,204	16,270	5,204
Batting average	45.83	36.40	47.02	37.71
100s/50s	25/38	5/19	47/79	9/31
Top score	294	137	294	137
Balls bowled	18	–	282	18
Wickets	1	–	7	0
Bowling average	7.00	–	30.14	–
5 wickets in innings	0	–	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	–	0	n/a
Best bowling	1/6	–	3/13	0/0
Catches/stumpings	108/–	36/–	207/–	63/–
Source: Cricinfo, 25 March 2015

Alastair Nathan Cook (born 25 December 1984) is an international cricketer of English and Welsh descent. He is a left-handed opening batsman who currently plays county cricket for Essex and Test cricket for England. Cook played for Essex Academy and quickly made his debut for the first XI in 2003. He similarly played in a variety of England's youth teams from 2000 until his call up to the Test side in 2006.

While touring in the West Indies with the ECB National Academy, Cook was called up to the England national team in India as a last-minute replacement for Marcus Trescothick and debuted with a century. Debuting at 21 years of age, Cook went on to become the youngest Englishman to reach 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 Test runs, making centuries in his first Test matches against India, Pakistan and the West Indies, and becoming the first Englishman to score seven Test centuries before his 23rd birthday. Despite this prodigious flurry of runs, Cook came under criticism throughout 2008 for a lack of centuries but replied with two in 2009, and 95 against Australia to help seal England's first victory against them at Lord's since 1934, taking seven catches in the series including the final wicket to win the 2009 Ashes series.

Early life and education

Born in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, Alastair Cook is one of several players with Welsh heritage to play for England; his mother Stephanie, a teacher, is from Swansea, although his father Graham, a high street banker and village cricketer, is English. Cook is a keen musician. By the age of eight, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral while also learning the clarinet. His choral flair led to him being granted a scholarship to Bedford School when he was 14. While being educated in Bedford he also learned to play piano and saxophone. However, music was soon eclipsed when the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) came to play against the Bedford XI. The home side were a man short and drafted the 14 year-old new boy to play; Cook scored a century. Over the next four years he hit 17 centuries and two double-hundreds to total 4,396 runs at an average of 87.90, captaining the cricket team in his final year as well as being president of the music society. He also gained three A-Levels and nine GCSEs in his time there. In his final year at Bedford in 2003 he scored 1,287 runs for the school including two unbeaten double-hundreds, averaging 160.87 to take the school record. After his international success, Cook returned for an Old Boys match at Bedford in 2008, playing for the HM Ultimate XI.

In August 2012 Andrew Strauss suddenly retired and Cookie was captain. His 1st test was in India from November. He lost it but England won Tests 2 & 3 and drew the 4th, giving them their 1st series win in India since 1986.

In August 2013 he retained the Ashes after winning the 1st 2 Tests easily and England being saved from defeat in the 3d Test by the rain at Old Trafford; so the match was drawn.

Centuries

Test Centuries of Alastair Cook
No.	Runs	Match	Opponent	City/Country	Venue	Year
[1]	104	1	India	Nagpur, India	Vidarbha	2006
[2]	105	6	Pakistan	London, England	Lord's	2006
[3]	127	7	Pakistan	Manchester, England	Old Trafford	2006
[4]	116	12	Australia	Perth, Australia	WACA Ground	2006
[5]	105	15	West Indies	London, England	Lord's	2007
[6]	106	17	West Indies	Manchester, England	Old Trafford	2007
[7]	118	24	Sri Lanka	Galle, Sri Lanka	Galle International Stadium	2007
[8]	139*	40	West Indies	Bridgetown, West Indies	Kensington Oval	2009
[9]	160	43	West Indies	Chester-le-Street, England	Riverside	2009
[10]	118	50	South Africa	Durban, South Africa	Sahara Stadium Kingsmead	2009
[11]	173	53	Bangladesh	Chittagong	Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium	2010
[12]	109*	54	Bangladesh	Dhaka	Shere Bangla National Stadium	2010
[13]	110	59	Pakistan	London	The Oval	2010
[14]	235*	61	Australia	Brisbane	The Gabba	2010
[15]	148	62	Australia	Adelaide	Adelaide Oval	2010
[16]	189	65	Australia	Sydney	Sydney Cricket Ground	2011
[17]	133	66	Sri Lanka	Cardiff	SWALEC Stadium	2011
[18]	106	67	Sri Lanka	England	Lord's	2011
[19]	294	71	India	Birmingham	Edgbaston	2011
[20]	115	81	South Africa	England	The Oval	2012
[21]	176	84	India	Ahmedabad	Sardar Patel Stadium	2012
[22]	122	85	India	Mumbai	Wankhede Stadium	2012
[23]	190	86	India	Kolkata	Eden Gardens	2012

England central contracts 2017/18
Ali • Anderson • Bairstow • Broad • Cook • Root • Stokes • Woakes
England incremental contracts 2017/18
Toby Roland-Jones