Alastair Cook on verge of breaking Sachin Tendulkar's 2005 record of being the youngest cricketer to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket. Also set to become the 12th cricketer and first England batsman to join the elite 10k club
Alastair Cook is on the verge of becoming the 12th cricketer and the first England batsman to reach the 10,000-run mark in Test cricket.
The England Test skipper is also just 36 runs away from becoming the youngest man in history to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket.
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If Cook achieves the feat in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Headingley, he will break India cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar’s record by five months.
The Indian batting icon joined the elite club a month before his 32nd birthday in March 2005 and against arch-rivals Pakistan at Kolkata's Eden Gardens. Cook turned 31 on Christmas Day in 2015 and will thus be aged 31 years, four months and 24 days on Thursday.
The stylish left-handed opener has till date scored 9,964 runs in 126 Tests at an impressive average of 46.56.
On the Ashes tour of 2010-11, he scored an incredible 766 runs in seven innings to anchor England's first series win in Australia for 24 years. And in so doing, the then 26-year-old went past 5,000 Test runs and became the second youngest batsman to reach the landmark after Tendulkar.
Two years later he became the youngest player to pass 7000 runs during England match vs India in Kolkata. He had in that match also become England's leading Test century-maker - having just hit No. 23. He currently has 28 centuries and
The Test specialist – who also plays for Essex in English county championships – made his Test debut against India in 2005.
He also helped England win the Ashes in Australia in 2011, and then – 2013 and 2015 in England.
Cook captained the England team to victory in the Test series in India in 2012.