This is one question that has been on everybody’s lips for many days now after it was revealed that Alastair Cook of England had amassed 11,568 runs for the national team in 145 Test matches. His 31 centuries have helped him come to close to 4500 runs of Sachin’s record.
The 32-year old player is in hot form and is looking ominous. He is in the prime of his cricketing career and these next two years could prove to be the time where Cook will try to take over Sachin’s record.
Will he break it?
Alastair Cook’s refusal to give up and his intense levels of concentration mean that he has a superb chance of going past the Little Master’s record of runs. He is an intense character when he is on form and his recent double century just re-iterated the fact that he can break the record with ease.
All that is needed from Alastair Cook’s end is to retain his fitness levels for a good amount of time and after relinquishing his captaincy post to Joe Root, he will only be concentrating on his batting to help England in the longer format of the game.
England are slated to play a lot of tests in the next year or so Cook’s opportunities have not looked better than this. He is also the only active player to feature in the top-20 of all-time run getters in Test cricket.
Players ahead:
Alastair Cook is ninth behind an illustrious list that contains the likes of Mahela Jayawadene, Sangakkara, Kallis, Ponting and Lara. It won’t be long before the Englishman goes past Jayawardene, with just around 250+ runs left.
If Cook continues this fantastic run of form, it won’t be long before he gets into the top-5 and then slowly into the top-3 and maybe the top position.
There is nobody too in the modern era who can challenge the Englishman and it won’t take him long to reach that record. Indians will be praying that Virat Kohli can improve his current form in the team and maybe slowly get to that record. However, Kohli is already 28 years old and will need to play out of his skin in order to reach that magical record.
One thing is for sure though, Alastair Cook is a fantastic player who has been a wonderful servant for England for so many years. If there is any player in world cricket who deserves to reach the record, it has to be the English legend.
