Former England captain and opener Alastair Cook will retire from international cricket after the fifth Test against India at The Oval. He will retire as England's leading Test run-getter as well as the most capped Test player.
Alastair Cook made his Test debut at the age of 21 against India at Nagpur in March 2006 and he scored 60 and 104* against the bowlers like Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.
In his 12 years career, he missed just a single Test match for England (third Test against India at Mumbai in debut series due to a stomach bug) and since then he has played record 159 consecutive Tests and will finish with 161 Test appearances - the most for England and seventh most in the world.
In 2010 Alastair Cook scored 766 runs with 3 hundreds against Australia and helped England to win their first Ashes in Australia after 24 years, in 2011 he made his best Test score of 294 against India in Edgbaston.
In 2012 after Strauss' retirement he was appointed England full-time Test captain and on his first assignment he led England to a series win in India, he himself was the star of that series victory as he scored 562 runs with 3 hundreds.
Under his leadership, England won 2 Ashes and he also became the only captain to win Test series in both India and South Africa. In May 2016 he became the first ever English player to score 10000 runs in the Test career.
In 12 years career Alastair Cook achieved many milestones and created several new records and here is a look at his illustrious career -
A look at Alastair Cook's international career in numbers :
32 - Number of Test hundreds Alastair Cook has scored - the most by any player for England.
Most Test hundreds for England -
ALASTAIR COOK - 32
Kevin Pietersen - 23
Ian Bell / Geoff Boycott / Walli Hammond / Colin Cowdrey - 22
Andrew Strauss - 21
159 - Alastair Cook will play his 159th consecutive Test match - the most consecutive Test appearances by any player.
Players who have played the most consecutive Test matches -
ALASTAIR COOK (ENG) - 159
Allan Border (AUS) - 153
Mark Waugh (AUS) - 107
Sunil Gavaskar (IND) - 106
766 - Alastair Cook scored 766 runs at an average of 127.66 with 3 hundreds in Ashes 2010 in Australia - the second most runs by any visiting batsman in a Test series in Australia.
Most runs by visiting batsmen in a Test series in Australia -
Wally Hammond (ENG) - 905 in 1928/29
ALASTAIR COOK (ENG) - 766 in 2010/11
Herbert Sutcliffe (ENG) - 734 in 1924/25
Aubrey Faulkner (SA)- 732 in 1910/11
Virat Kohli (IND) - 692 in 2014/15
2710 - Runs Alastair Cook scored in Asia in Test cricket - the most by any non-Asian player.
Most Test runs in Asia by non-Asian players -
ALASTAIR COOK - 2710
Jacques Kallis - 2058
Ricky Ponting - 1889
Hashim Amla - 1859
11627 - Runs Alastair Cook scored as a Test opener - the most by any opener in the world.
Most runs as an opener in Test cricket -
ALASTAIR COOK (ENG) - 11627
Sunil Gavaskar (IND) - 9607
Graeme Smith (SA) - 9030
Matthew Hayden (AUS) - 8625
12254 - Alastair Cook has scored 12254 runs in Test cricket so far - the most for England and sixth most in the world.
Most Test runs for England -
ALASTAIR COOK - 12254
Graham Gooch - 8900
Alec Stewart - 8463
David Gower - 8231
15519 - Alastair Cook has scored 15519 runs in international cricket - the most for England.
Most runs for England in international cricket -
ALASTAIR COOK - 15519
Kevin Pietersen - 13779
Ian Bell - 13331
Graham Gooch - 13190
Alastair Cook also holds the following records -
- Most Tests as captain for England (59).
- Most Test runs as captain for England (4844).
- Most Test hundreds as captain for England (12).
- Youngest player to score 10000 Test runs.
