Alastair Cook: England's record-machine
Alastair Cook has evolved as England's run-machine in the recent times as he goes around notching up one record after another.
Five centuries in the five Tests as captain -- Alastair Cook is been on a dream run for quite some time now, gathering runs by the bucket for England. And this even after the sudden entrustment with captaincy after Andrew Strauss's exit.
On Thursday, while he led the charge with a superb century at the Eden Gardens, Cook became the youngest batsman to go past the 7000-runs mark at 27 years 347 days. The record was earlier held by Sachin Tendulkar who went past the mark at an age of 28 years 193 days.
Not only is he now the youngest, but also the quickest Test batsman to get there. Cook got to the 7000 runs mark after playing for 2482 days. Kevin Pietersen (2571) and Andrew Strauss (2999) follow him. The three other quickest ones, in terms of days, to get to the mark are Graeme Smith (3024), now retired Rahul Dravid (3058) and India opener Virender Sehwag (3196).
Not only that, with 23 hundreds Cook now has the most number of Test centuries by an England batsman. He overtook Richard Hammond, Geoffrey Boycott, Colin Cowdrey and Kevin Pietersen (22 each).
Cook became the 10th England player, and 41st overall, to breach the 7000 runs-mark.
With 835* runs, Cook is also the highest scorer as a captain in his five Tests. Aussie legend Don Bradman had 810 runs in his first five Tests as the skipper. Sunil Gavaskar (723), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (695), Graeme Smith (692), Mohammad Azharuddin and Younis Khan (both 651) are other notable scorers in their first five Tests at captains.
(All stats till the end of Day 2 of the Eden Gardens Test on December 6)