News about Alastair Cook

AADAM PATEL: Alastair Cook has been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame among the Class of 2024. The former England captain, who played 161 Test matches and scored 12,472 runs was England's leading run-scorer in Test cricket until Joe Root surpassed him last week. 'At this moment in time, I'd find it hard to say that anyone is playing better than Joe Root at the moment,' admitted Cook, who rang Root and made sure that 'he had a beer in his hand' after the Yorkshireman moved into fifth on the list of all-time leading run scorers in Test cricket during England's win against Pakistan in Multan.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: Tuesday's second Test in Multan looks set to take place on the same pitch which produced a sensational innings win for England on Friday - with Ben Stokes in line to return for his game since July. No one could recall if England had ever played successive Tests on the same surface - not least with only three free days between games. But the Pakistan board's Australian groundsman Tony Hemming had set up giant fans at each end of the pitch in a bid to dry it out after heavy watering, and all the indicators were that it would be used once more.

Joe Root was hailed as England's greatest ever batter last week, after surpassing Alastair Cook as his country's record run-scorer with a stunning innings of 262 against Pakistan, taking his total to 12,664. Here, some of those who have watched Root blossom share their memories of England's run machine with Mail Sport's David Coverdale and Aadam Patel, including Nasser Hussain, Moeen Ali and Jonathan Trott.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: As England completed an unprecedented victory over Pakistan on the final morning of the first Test in Multan, another entry was added to the Bazball hall of fame. Never before in 147 years of the game's oldest and greatest format had an innings victory been achieved by a team conceding a first-innings total of 500 or more. Yet as Jack Leach wrapped things up with the final three wickets, perhaps England's greatest achievement was to make the remarkable feel routine, history seem humdrum. Of course, this magnificent win was neither of those things.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: For the second time in two days of this extraordinary Test, a straight hit for four by a Yorkshireman brought up an all-time historic moment for English cricket. On Wednesday, Sheffield's Joe Root had overtaken Alastair Cook's England-record Test tally with a pristine straight-drive off Aamer Jamal. Now, Harry Brook - born 50 miles north in Keighley - reached England's sixth triple-century, and first since Graham Gooch 34 years ago, with a hearty thwack off spinner Saim Ayub, setting his team on the path to what looked like becoming a remarkable win. Brook removed his helmet, acknowledged the acclaim of his team-mates and the small group of England fans up in the Inzamam-ul-Haq Enclosure, and glanced skywards, thinking of his grandma, Pauline, whose death earlier in the year meant he missed the series in India. It seems hard to imagine this team without him now.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: With 12 minutes to go before lunch on the third day of the first Test, Joe Root punched Aamer Jamal down the ground - and knew the record was his. As ball hit boundary, Root was crowned England's greatest Test run-scorer of all time, passing Alastair Cook's tally of 12,472, and leaving only Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid ahead. Even in Multan's cauldron, he was breathing rarefied air. Root's celebrations were muted, partly because that's his way, partly because the heat had all but sapped him of the strength to raise his bat.

LAWRENCE BOOTH IN MULTAN: Joe Root has overtaken Alastair Cook's haul of 12,472 and become England's leading Test run-scorer.  The former Test skipper reached - and surpassed - the milestone on Wednesday morning on day three of the first Test against Pakistan in Multan, scoring his 35th Test century in the process.  Root has been a key player for England for years, consistently scoring runs in all conditions, and his class at the crease is clear for all to see. 

England's star batsman Joe Root etched his name into the history books during the first Test against Pakistan on Wednesday morning. Root surpassed Alastair Cook's tally of 12,472 to become England's highest run-scorer in Test cricket - registering a total of 12,473 runs.

NASSER HUSSAIN: Whether Joe Root overtakes Alastair Cook's England Test record of 12,472 runs in this game or the next, we already know we're looking at arguably this country's greatest ever batter. It's difficult to compare eras, and I can only comment on the players I've seen, but Root combines the flair of Kevin Pietersen, the penchant for match-defining innings of Graham Gooch, and the hunger for runs of Cook.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT THE KIA OVAL : While children around the country have been returning to school, England have played this Test as if the holidays were round the corner. Victory is not yet out of reach, with Sri Lanka - nine wickets intact - needing another 125 on Monday to avoid a 3-0 whitewash. But faced with the chance to complete a first perfect summer in 20 years, Ollie Pope's team have been complacent and careless in equal measure. Only Jamie Smith, who has enjoyed a superb first season at Test level, escaped censure as England - armed with a lead of 62 - were dismissed in their second innings for 156, their lowest total at home for two years.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT LORD'S: Gus Atkinson was named as the official Player of the Match after scoring 118 off 115 balls in England's first innings, also taking seven wickets, including a five-for, on Sunday. Atkinson also scored a perfect 10 in player ratings. He was not the only 10/10 performer, though. Read on to discover who else earned a perfect score and and which two players were marked at just 3/10 for their efforts.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT LORD'S: Joe Root insisted he had plenty of runs left in the tank after his record 34th Test hundred cemented England's control of the second Test against Sri Lanka. Having equalled Alastair Cook's tally of 33 in the first innings, Root pulled clear in the second, becoming only the fourth player - after George Headley, Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan - to score two centuries in a Lord's Test. 'It feels good,' he said, with typical understatement.

LAWRENCE BOOTH AT LORD'S: Joe Root steered Lahiru Kumara to the third-man boundary, removed his helmet, and soaked up the love. The celebratory ritual was hardly new to him, but this was special - a 33rd Test hundred to equal Alastair Cook's national record and dig England out of a hole on the first day of the second Test against Sri Lanka. It says everything about Root's value that the second of those considerations will mean more to him than the first, and the sight of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum leading the applause from the dressing-room balcony must have added to the warmth of his glow.

It's not even two years since Ben Duckett returned to Test cricket, hoping - perhaps even praying - that his second crack would go better than his first. Now, he is not only a top-order fixture: he is one of the team's most unapologetic spokesmen, barely pausing when asked why England's Bazballers - after 17 often thrilling wins in 26 Tests - still attract criticism. 'In the world we live in, some people can never be happy, and can never make positive comments,' he says. 'They're always looking to dig and criticise the way anyone plays.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY LAWRENCE BOOTH: As he sits in the Trent Bridge pavilion, reflecting quietly on his remarkable Test debut at Lord's a few days earlier, Gus Atkinson lures you into thinking he can't possibly be a fast bowler, cricket's least temperate breed. It's a mistake others have made before, and some will make again. And yet it really is hard to square his angelic blue eyes, shy smile, and tendency to self-deprecate with the 90mph assassin who took 12 for 106 during the innings win against West Indies. He is polite, considered, economical with his words but never terse. If a goose waddled past, it's likely Atkinson would not say 'boo'.

PAUL NEWMAN: Cricket is a very different game now to the one I started covering as a correspondent for Mail Sport and it is one I leave, after more than 17 years, in a more precarious state than ever. Michael Atherton tells how, in early 2008, he warned a group of journalists that if the IPL was not checked by administrators, it would rapidly become the dominant force in the game. How they all scoffed. Well, most of them. I was in that bar in Dunedin during England's tour of New Zealand and, as I remember it, was pretty much the only voice in agreement with Athers who, then as now, is one of the best thinkers on our great game.

BOOTH BOOTH: Glomorgan captain Sam Northeast stole the show on the first day of the County Championship by defeating Middlesex at Lord's. Billy Root, brother of England Test star Joe Joe, was wicketless on the second wicket and Kiran Carlson 176 for the third. Glamorgan had reached an imposing 370 for three runs after being put in to bat at stumps. Ollie Robinson began his early-season with two spells against Northamptonshire, convincing the England hierarchy of his worth. Robinson, who admitted that he needed to 'change the story that I don't care' after an underwhelming return to the Test team in India in February, went wicketless on a truncated day on 95 for two. However, he seemed more alert than he had on England service, particularly during a second burst of 53-0. Both wickets were dismissed by West Indian Test quick Jayden Seales.

My mum was there in person, but she was also standing next to Jimmy's dad Michael in the stands, and she sent me snapshots of the two of them doing superstitious cricket activities like swapping seats or going for walks for good fortune in the name of getting him to that 700. We all know that it means absolutely nothing, but we still do it. It's a spectacular achievement, but not one that I can recall from another fast bowler versus another. When people talk about Jimmy, they generally emphasize that they have the dedication and the mental strength to keep going forward, and, of course, there are times when you can't play in the wrong climate, but we should really marvel at his talent, because that is what it has taken to get so many wickets under different conditions, challenging the best batters in the world for more than 20 years.

Following a difficult day in the field during Australia's fifth Test against India, Aussie cricket legend Mark Waugh (pictured right) has slammed Alastair Cook (left) after the former England skipper announced that his staff (inset) are 'not robots.'

Yes, I agree that taking on India in their own circumstances is one of the most difficult Test cricket tasks. It could be even more difficult than beating Australia in their backyard, which could be argued. Well, England has played a full part in a thrilling, wildly entertaining series with hardly any dull moments that have added to the arm's arsenal for the grand old game they are so keen to promote. But, if the dust settles on India's 17th successive home series victory, a streak that goes back to Alastair Cook's 2012 triumph, it will be a huge missed opportunity for the team to prove beyond question that Bazball works against anybody, anywhere.

NASSER HUSSAIN: Ben Duckett is the player who epitomises English cricket's mindset shift. Duckett talked about what he learned from England's first winter in 2016-17, when he toured Bangladesh and India and really failed. In Bangladesh, he played on some turning pitches and ended up with a 50 in a 1-1 draw, but was later harrassed by Ravichandran Ashwin of India, who swore out to him three times in a row, not helped by a tactical decision to get his front leg out the way and reveal his stumps in an attempt to open up the off-side.

NASSER HUSSAIN: To join the list of England cricketers who have won 100 Test caps, you'll need to be one of the all-time greats, and the journey requires many aspects: patience, knowledge, and mental toughness among them. You have to be a complete participant, reaching a world-class qualification and maintaining it while dealing with the mental and physical challenges of competing at international level. All the while away from home and away from family. By definition, being on this list indicates that you have made a significant contribution to English cricket. But Ben Stokes, the 16th Englishman on the incredible list, has accomplished the near-impossible challenge of ticking every single box as an international cricketer.

HELP NEWMAN IN RAJKOT: When asked on Tuesday if the draw, anathema to England in the Bazball period, was still off the table, Ben Stokes had a one-word answer, even if the pitch for Thursday's pivotal Test is a repeat of the one that resulted in high-scoring stalemate here more than seven years ago. 'Yeah,' said the England captain, one of six century designers in the drawn first Test at Rajkot of a series that began in 2016-17. India won convincingly. He had no reason to say anything else.

England won by a 190-run deficit in Hyderabad on Sunday to defeat India in a historic Test victory. Ben Stokes' side recovered after a difficult first two days with a spectacular 196 from Ollie Pope. In the first Test, debutant spinner Tom Hartley spun his team to a 28-run victory.