Alastair Cook: His 5 most memorable moments as England captain

VICTORY IN INDIA

Cook’s very first assignment as permanent captain brought perhaps the most outstanding collective achievements in a generation of cricket travels. England went 1-0 down in a four-match series, with a nine-wicket thumping in Ahmedabad. Yet through sheer force of will, and a typical welter of runs, the new captain led from the front en route to a 2-1 series victory – England’s first in India for 28 years.

[COOK QUITS AS ENGLAND CAPTAIN]

For Cook, it was a triumph of pragmatism – engineering the return of the controversial Kevin Pietersen, who went on to play one of the great innings of the modern era in victory at Mumbai – as well as his own great individual skill, allied to that of two spinners at the top of their game in Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar.

ASHES GLORY … AT HOME

Under Cook, the urn was going nowhere when the Ashes were contested in England. Either side of the unravelling of the Andy Flower era down under, Cook’s team were very definitely in charge at home. In 2013, after an outstanding Test at Trent Bridge, they steamrollered the Australians at Lord’s and then dug deep in Durham to seal the deal. In 2015, in a largely unsatisfactory series, they prevailed too. Each team hammered the other in turn in a summer of manic cricket, but England ruled the telling middle leg in the midlands at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge – victories which signalled the end of Australia captain Michael Clarke’s career.

THE RUNS KEPT COMING

Throughout, Cook’s run-making knack has never eluded him for long. Yes, he did go 35 Test innings without a hundred between May 2013 and March 2015 – but even then, he remained at least acceptably productive. Either side of the lull, there have been prolific spells, making him England’s all-time leading Test runscorer, then the first to 10,000 and 11,000 runs. He could yet become the world’s all-time leader, and if he gets there the mantle may turn out to be his for eternity.

CLINGING ON …

Cook admitted, in the vicious aftermath of England’s 5-0 Ashes whitewash defeat under his captaincy in 2013/14, that there were “wobbles” at home to Sri Lanka and India the following summer. Yet as England searched for answers to their miserable winter down under, it was remarkable he even made it that far. Record-breaking batsman Pietersen and coach Flower, for example, both famously did not. Cook’s determination almost wavered after defeat to Sri Lanka at Headingley in 2014, at a time when for once there were mutterings about his output at the top of the order too, but in the end he simply redoubled his efforts.

SURGING FORWARD

It took another 12 innings for his next, long overdue, century – against West Indies at Barbados. But even as England’s form continued to fluctuate wildly, he delivered the result that matters – a second successive win in front of home fans in the Ashes. Cook’s England went on to beat then world number ones South Africa – away – and, as recently as the end of last summer at The Oval, were within one Test win against Pakistan of going top of the International Cricket Council rankings.