5 monumental records which Alastair Cook could have broken had he played longer

Alastair Cook announced his retirement from International Cricket recently and the 5th Test against India will be his last International match for England. He has been a great servant for the country both as a batsman as well as a captain.

Cook has had a phenomenal Test Career and a decent ODI career in the last 12 years. He will be remembered as one of the best Test batsmen and he is by far the best batsman to have emerged from Europe.

Cook had a poor recent run of form which has forced him to retire at an age of just 33. He still had years of Cricket left in him and if he had played till the age of 37 or 38 he would have achieved some unimaginable things in Cricket. This article tries to compile the records which Cook would have broken had he played till that age.

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#5) 1000 Runs in a Test Series

Alastair Cook has been a prolific run scorer for England over the years. He has had a number of phenomenal series as a batsman but his performance in the 2010-11 Ashes was a path-breaking one for the Englishman.

Cook scored 766 Runs in 7 Innings in the 2010-11 Ashes which was played in Australia. His phenomenal batting helped England pull off a coveted series win in Australia which will remain the biggest moment of his career.

The record for most runs in a single series is held by Sir Don Bradman as he had scored 974 Runs in 5 Tests in 1930. Cook had scored 766 Runs in just 7 Innings and considering the fact that England plays 5 Matches Test Series almost every year, Cook would definitely have been a candidate for breaching the 1000 Runs mark in a single Series for the first time in Cricket history.

#4) Most Matches in Test Cricket

Sachin Tendulkar is the only player to have played in 200 Tests in the history of Cricket. The players who stand second in the list are Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh who are at 168 matches.

Cook had already played in 160 Tests for England and considering the number of Tests that England play every year, Cook would have easily crossed Sachin's tally in the next four years if he had not retired.

Joe Root is just 27 and has already played in 73 Tests in just 6 years and if he manages to play for another 11 years he will go past Sachin's mark but Cook had an opportunity to play for another 6 to 7 years and set a record which even Root would have struggled to break.

#3) Highest Score in an Innings

Brian Lara is the present holder of the record of the highest score in a single Inning in Test Cricket. He had held the record previously as well when he had scored 375 Runs in an innings which was later broken by Mathew Hayden when he scored 390 runs against Zimbabwe. Lara again broke that record by scoring 400 in a single innings.

Alastair Cook has a highest score of 294 runs in a single innings against India in the 2011 series. Cook was having a phenomenal run that year and was scoring centuries for fun. He displayed his hunger for Runs and that continued throughout his career.

Cook had fallen way short of the 400 runs mark but the fact that he had scored 5 double centuries and had almost scored a Triple Century is a proof of his immense hunger for runs and if he had played longer he could have gone on to break the 400 runs mark which looks a mountain too high to climb for the younger batsmen of this generation.

He is probably the last of the traditional Test batsman that we had in International Cricket and the Lara record might stay for a long time to come thanks to Cook's premature retirement.

#2) Most Centuries in Test Cricket

The maximum number of Test Centuries is yet another record which is held by Sachin Tendulkar and Cook was en-route to breaking it. Cook was looking extremely comfortable to go past that mark at one point of time and there was a chance of him doing that right till he announced retirement.

Sachin has scored 51 Test Centuries in his career and Cook has scored 32 in his 12 years long career. Sachin had played 24 years of International Cricket and had scored 51 Test Centuries whereas Cook had managed 32 centuries in just 12 years.

Cook still had the ability to play for another 6 to 7 years and if he had retired at the age of 40 like Sachin did he would have required to score just 3 centuries every year to break Sachin's Record and etch his name in the history of Test Cricket forever.

#1) Most Runs in Test Cricket

The record for most Runs in Test Cricket is probably the most coveted record that any cricketer can have and Cook looked the best-poised batsman to snatch that record from Sachin.

Sachin scored 15921 Runs in his Test Career and is the leading run-getter in Test Cricket by a huge distance. Cook had already scored 12254 Runs at an age of 32 and was touted by many experts to break Sachin's record.

Cook was just 3667 Runs away from that phenomenal record and he had the ability to go past it even with his poor form. He had to score just 600 runs every year till the age of 39 to break Sachin's record which is an easy task for a player of his ability.