Biography of Alastair Cook:- Alastair Cook was born on 25thDecember 1984 Gloucester. His father is also a cricket enthusiast that encouraged Cook to become a batsman.
Cook bats with the left hand. He is also an occasional right-arm medium bowler. Alastair Cook remained one of the greatest batsmen in the history of domestic and international cricket in England. He is still a great asset possessed by England cricket team in ODIs and Test cricket.
Biography of Alastair Cook
- Born:- 25 December 1984 (age 32), Gloucester, United Kingdom
- Height:- 1.88 m
- Spouse:- Alice Hunt (m. 2011)
- Test Debut :- 1 March 2006 v India
- ODI Debut:- 28 June 2006 v Sri Lanka
- Children:- Elsie Cook
Cook played for Essex in county cricket for a long time; he also remained test and ODI captain of England. Alastair Cook has a flawless technique at home, and overseas, under his captaincy, England topped the ICC Test rankings twice.
See Also: Biography of Andrew Strauss
Along with batting, Alastair Cook is an electric fielder. His fielding position and alertness on the ground is enough to showcase his dedication to the game. The biography of Alastair Cook includes his International career, personal life, achievements, and records.
Early Career
Cook joined Essex Cricket Academy when he was 16. He was given a chance to play for Essex County Club soon after the admission as a first-class player. Cook did great in the first match; he led Essex to a victory with a 122-run stand in the second inning.
In the next season, Cook was all over the opposition again with the natural talent mixed with hard training sessions he attended. Alastair Cook wasn’t provided a proper chance at the International level. Still, he was decent in county cricket that earned him a place in national team a couple of years later.
A year before joining English team, he was a specialist opener playing for MCC. He scored a century in the first inning and then followed by 97 runs in the next inning.
He was awarded Young Player of the year award for his extraordinary knocks in 2005. In late-2005 season, Cook was called by National Academy as part of the plan for upcoming series against India.
Initial Success in International Cricket
In 2006, Cook was part of England cricket team as a replacement for Michael Vaughan; his debut was one of the great innings. Cook scored 60 in the first inning followed by a century in the second inning becoming the fifth batsman to score a fifty and a hundred on debut.
The second test couldn’t go well up to the expectations. In the next tour against Sri Lanka, Cook was shuffled to a one-down position as Trescothick returned from injury. Cook was comfortable on spinning pitches making runs at a good pace.
Cook found Andrew Strauss as his natural opening partner; both made some record-breaking partnerships. Their 229-runs partnership against West Indies in 2009 was one of the best opening stands. Cook fell short of a well-deserved century as he stumbled on 94, his partner made 169.
In the same tour, Cook became the youngest English cricketer to surpass 3000 test runs. Cook’s form in T20i matches was way below par. It was the reason that he was omitted from the limited overs format before ICC World T20 2009.
In 2010, Cook was given short captaincy tenure for the series against South Africa that was narrowly drawn by England after losing the first game. In 2010-11 Ashes series, Cook was having the form of his lifetime, in the first Test at Gabba; Cook scored 235 not out as England declared inning is losing only one wicket.
In the following matches, the centuries and half-centuries continued, and Alastair Cook became the man of the match as well as series at the end. He also completed 5000 test runs with a world record of staying 36 hours at the crease in a 5-match Test series.
In 2011, after a miserable performance in World Cup 2011, Cook was handed over the captaincy of ODI and later for the test team. His centuries continued as England won the series 3-2 against Sri Lanka after the World Cup.
Ashes 2013 and Afterwards
Cook was appointed captain for Ashes 2013, Cook and company won the series 3-0 despite Cook having a bad time getting the form back. In the next phase of Ashes to be held n Australia, England had no clue of what happened to them.
They lost the first Test by 381 runs and the second one by 218. At the end of test series, England was lost by a5-0margin, and it was furthered with a 4-1 ODI series defeat under Cook’s captaincy. After successive series defeats from India and Sri Lanka, Cook was removed from captaincy in ODIs at the end of 2014.
In 2015 Ashes series, Cook remained England captain, and England registered a series win with a3-2 margin.
Later against Pakistan, Cook scored his third double ton and the longest inning of all times by any English batsmen and third-longest overall. In the end, England lost that series too by 2-0 keeping their bad record intact on sub-continental tracks.
Alastair Cook Stats and Records
Here are few of the most celebrated achievements by Alastair Cook:
- Cook is the sixteenth English cricketer to score a century on debut.
- World record partnership along with Jonathon Trott, when both scored 329 runs partnership for the third wicket
- Most Test runs scored by an Englishman
- Youngest English cricketer to score 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, and 6000 runs and youngest cricketer (overall) to reach 7000, 8000, 9000, 10,000 runs and 11,000 runs in Test cricket.
- Alastair Cook is also the England’s most capped player in tests with 134 tests and counting.
- Most time (36 hours) spent by any player in a 5-match Test series.
Alastair Cook Family and Personal Life
Alastair Cook is a father of two sons. Elsie born in April 2014 and Isabelle born in October 2016. Alastair Cook married his childhood sweetheart Alice Hunt in December 2011. Cook’s father Graham is a farmer and an engineer. His mother Stephanie was a teacher.
Hobbies and Interests
Alastair Cook is a part-time farmer and an excellent musician. He is a semi-pro Clarinet player and has been playing it since he was 8. Cook also donates a fair amount of his earnings to David Randall Foundation and Breast Cancer programs.
