Former Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar believes England captain Alastair Cook has a good chance of surpassing India's veteran cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's record of 15,921 runs in Tests
New Delhi: Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that the youngest entrant in the illustrious 10,000 Test run club, Alastair Cook can challenge batting legend Sachin Tendulkar's all-time Test run record.
Sunil Gavaskar
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Cook on Monday became the first England cricketer to cross the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket, and the youngest overall, beating Tendulkar's record by five months by reaching the milestone at the age of 31 years and five months.
'Big advantage'
Tendulkar — Test cricket's most prolific batsman with 15,921 runs — was 31 years, 10 months 20 days old when he scored his 10,000th run in 2005.
Sachin Tendulkar
"Well the big advantage that England always has is that they are always playing a minimum of 11-12 Test matches on an average in a year. In 11-12 Test matches even if you score 50 runs per Test match you are getting about 500 runs every year," Gavaskar said.
"So over the next 6-7 years there might be a period when he (Cook) might have a terrific year where he might score a 1000 runs so that will certainly give him a chance. He has got age on his side, he is also one of the very fit players. He is less than 32 years and if he plays for 6-8 more years he has got a very good chance," the legendary batsman told NDTV.
England skipper Alastair Cook during his unbeaten 47 against Sri Lanka on Monday. Pic/Getty Images
Cook is the 12th batsman and only the second opener to get to 10,000 runs in Tests. Cook achieved the feat during England's nine-wicket victory over Sri Lanka at Durham.
Asked whether Cook's achievement was even more special considering that he's an opening batsman, Gavaskar replied in the affirmative.
"It definitely does because the ball does swing around a little bit more, the pitches can sometimes a little bit lively.
"Playing in England is much more difficult against quality opposition. So I think Alastair Cook certainly deserves a lot of praise for getting there," he said.
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