Opinion: Why there cannot be another Alastair Cook

Alastair Cook walks out to the middle for the last time today after calling time on his International career. He said that he had ‘nothing left in the tank’ and admitted that the single-minded devotion he always had was gone- a subtle way of saying that he had given it his all while playing for England and that he had nothing more left to contribute.

Cook definitely has a point. Playing International Cricket takes a toll on your body and your mind, and it is not easy staying away from home for weeks in the end, especially when you have a young family.

Cook was the most not-so-English of batsmen because he scored runs in difficult conditions, didn’t term wickets in Pakistan ‘pieces of baked earth’ and wore fame with lightness as easy and charming as a Rahul Dravid cover drive. Numbers don’t do justice to this colossus of a cricketer but for the statistically inclined, let’s get them out of the way.

Cook holds most English batting records in Test cricket- from being the highest run-getter, playing the most number of matches, to scoring the most number of centuries.

Cook was no charmer and flamboyance wasn’t his strongest suit, but what set him apart was his will to score runs in difficult conditions and the grit to do back-breaking work. It’s not easy being an opening batsman. You have to face the best and the freshest of the opponent’s bowlers with a shiny new cherry day in and day out.

It requires immense technical prowess and sheer mental strength. That Cook did with ease and also with the added pressure of leading his country for most of his career showed the brilliance of the man.

England banked on Bell for technical artistry, Strauss for tenacity and Pietersen for unmatched genius, but turned to Cook when the going got tough. It was in these situations that he found an extra gear from within himself, be it Brisbane and Sydney in 2010, Ahmedabad and Kolkata in 2012 or Abu Dhabi in 2015.

A batsman achieves greatness only when he scores overseas runs and we are all suckers for that kind of sentiment, and it is not stressed lightly, because only when a man has his back to the wall in conditions away from the comfort of home, family and friends, does his real character show up.

Cook passed this litmus test with ease --- he has more overseas runs than any other English batsman, scoring eighteen of his thirty-two Test hundreds away from England, amassing 5904 runs at 46.48. He is also amongst that rare breed of batsmen whose away average remains more than the one at home.

In recent times, the technical mastery that Cook showed earlier in his career seemed to be on the wane, and it is not entirely unexpected, because, with time and age, a man loses his reflexes and the nimbleness of his feet. He will play his last Test at The Oval on Friday and it is a blessing that the opponents are India.

From scoring a hundred on debut in Nagpur in 2006 to out-batting the world in the 2012 tour and securing a historic series win for England as captain, some of his best cricket has come against the number one ranked Test team. His highest score has come against the Indians too, a mammoth 294 at Edgbaston in the 2011 home series. India has the privilege to see one of England’s greatest depart at The Oval.

It was with the tour to India in 2016 that Cook’s struggles began and culminated in the runs drying up. There were two gigantic double hundreds in between, one of them at the Boxing Day Test in the Ashes, but apart from that, runs came only in trickles.

Along with his quick footwork, what also seemed gone was the conviction and confidence of a man struggling to come to terms with his imperfections. In the latter stage of his career, it seemed as if he had made peace with them. England will miss him.

What Cook brought to the table was character, guts, courage and resolve. He could put up with anything you threw at him and more. You’d see him batting for hours, drenched with sweat and strife and admire him all the more for surviving in some of the harshest conditions in which cricket is played. Bloody hell, this is cricket, you’d think. He signified Test cricket at its rawest and purest form.

One can't deny that the man is intriguing. He refrains from social media, puts his sheep out to pasture at his farm in Bedfordshire when he is not playing and is one of those rare cricketers who believe that the game is not life and death. As the cricket writer Jamie Alter puts it, “Cook is an analogue man in a digital world.”

So it is with a touch of sorrow that we will all bid goodbye to the greatest batsman England has produced and stand up when he walks out to bat for the last time at The Oval on Friday. Alastair Cook may not my favourite cricketer; there are others whom I’ve enjoyed watching more.

But none of those cricketers could turn up any given Thursday and face a menacing Dale Steyn with a new ball in his hand for the first over of a Test match. Cook did that for a living. That requires character, fortitude and the stomach for a fight. For that and the kind of man he is, Alastair Cook will always be among those cricketers I admire the most.

Thank you not for the square cuts, but for the grit.