Alastair Cook

Who is Alastair Cook?

Alastair Nathan Cook, MBE is an English cricket player. He is the captain of the England test and one-day international teams. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays county cricket for Essex. Cook played for Essex's Academy and made his debut for the first XI in 2003. He 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. He made his debut at the age of 21 and went on to score 1,000 runs in his maiden year and become the youngest Englishman to reach 1,500, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 and 5,000 Test runs, making centuries in his first Test matches against India, Pakistan, the West Indies and Bangladesh.

Despite this prodigious flurry of runs, Cook came under criticism throughout 2008 for a lack of centuries; he replied in 2009 with two centuries, as well as a score of 95 against Australia to help seal England's first victory against them at Lord's since 1934.