Alastair Cook recently became only the 12th batsman to score more than 10,000 Tests. As he was the youngest member of that club, beating Sachin Tendulkar's record, there questions about what other record of Sachin's that the England captain might be able to break.
While some records in Tests, like most centuries against a particular team is not something that even Sachin has in his possession, what records could Cook realistically look to break?
So here are 5 records of Sachin Tendulkar that Alastair Cook can break:
#1 Most fifties in Tests
While everyone knows that Sachin holds the record for most Test centuries, some aren't aware of the fact that he holds the record for most fifties and most 50+ scores as well. While Sachin's record of 119 50+ scores and 51 centuries may be a long way away from Cook, whose respective numbers are 76 and 28, the record for most fifties might not be beyond him.
While Cook has a decent conversion rate, it is nowhere near as good as some of the greatest to have played the game. Which is precisely why, with 48 fifties, he has a decent shot of breaking Tendulkar's record of 68.
Although 20 more fifties may seem like a lot more to achieve, one look at his recent record suggests that he is on the way there. In the last four years, Cook has scored 19 fifties in Tests and all he needs to beat Tendulkar's record is to continue that impressive record until he decides to call it a day.
#2 Most matches
Every young cricketer growing up, dreams of playing at least one Test match for their country. In some cases, they are lucky to play more. Like in football, getting to 100 Test caps for your country is considered a massive achievement but Sachin Tendulkar, like he always does, went one better and played 200 Tests.
Only seven batsmen have ever played more than 150 Tests and the second on the list of most Tests is Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh, who have combined for 168 Tests, a full 32 Tests behind Sachin, whose incredibly long career helped him accumulate all those matches.
One of the reasons why Alastair Cook is poised to break Sachin's record despite having played just 129 Tests is because of the country he plays for. No country plays more Tests on average than England and the fact that Cook is England's captain means he is certain to take part in all of them. If he plays for another few years, there is little doubt that he can beat Sachin's record of most Tests.
#3 Most times dismissed for LBW
When you play as many games as Sachin did, you are bound to accumulate a record or two that you aren't proud of. In Sachin's case, there weren't too many of those in his career, but thanks to the sheer number of matches that he has played, he holds the record for being dismissed for LBW the most times in Test history.
Aside from holding the dubious honour of being the batsman who has been dismissed more than anyone else in the history of Tests with 296 dismissals, he holds the record for being dismissed by LBW (63) more than anyone else.
While Cook has only been dismissed 217 times in Tests, a long way away from Sachin's record. He has been out lbw 42 times, just 21 times fewer than Sachin. With at least another few years in his career, he looks certain to knock the Indian batting maestro off from the top of this record.
#4 Most runs
The most recent member of the 10,000-run club is arguably the biggest threat to Sachin Tendulkar's record of most runs in Tests (15,921). While there have been plenty of players who have averaged over 50 in Tests, most of them didn't play for long enough to score enough runs.
That is precisely the reason why Alastair Cook is in with a shot of breaking Sachin's record. While it is true that he averages only 46 in his career, England play more Tests than any other country on average each year.
In the last seven years, Cook scored more than 900 Test runs each year apart from 2014. Given that he is just 31 and was the youngest to reach the 10,000 club, all he has to do is continue his incredibly consistent run for at least another 5 years and then the record will be his.
#5 Most runs at any batting position
Test cricket is a difficult art to master irrespective of what position you bat at, but it is particularly harder, when you open the innings, despite that Alastair Cook has managed to score more than 9,500 runs in that position. So he is well on his way to another Sachin record.
Thanks to the sheer amount of runs and his consistent position in the batting order, Sachin also holds the record for making the most number of runs at a particular batting position (number 4) with 13,492 runs.
With 9,549 runs as an opener already, Cook is not only chasing Sunil Gavaskar's all-time record of most runs (9,607) as an opener but also Sachin's all-time record of most runs at any batting position. Given Cook is unlikely to bat at any position apart from opener till the end of his career, all he needs to do is to continue to pile on the runs. If he does that another record of Sachin's will be in his possession.
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