NICK FRIEND: Against Yorkshire last week, the Essex seamer became the first English bowler in more than half a century to reach 200 first-class wickets at an average under 20
There is rarely a time when deferring to the authority of the player isn't a wise move. After all, they're the ones tasked with negotiating opponents from 22 yards away. But it's nice when what you think you can see from the stands and what the numbers are saying match up to first-hand experience.
In this case, it is this: every year, Sam Cook is the most improved bowler on the circuit, so much so that against Yorkshire, he took his 200th first-class wicket in his 57th game, all coming at 19.59 apiece.
Eventually, incremental improvement has to reach a point where it's considered something else, and there is surely an argument now to call Cook, 25, county cricket's leading seamer, taking the mantle from Ollie Robinson, if we are to separate England's established pool from those beneath. The first bowler in more than half a century to reach his tally of wickets at an average below 20, he was namechecked recently in a conversation on Sky between Michael Atherton and the ECB's talent ID thinktank of Mo Bobat and David Court as proof that he has forced his way onto the radar.
By Cook's own admission, that has been a gradual process born out of an obsession with playing international cricket. He told The Cricketer in 2021 that a conversation with Ed Smith, the then-chief selector, while on England Lions duty had fuelled that fire – "he wanted us to be outstanding in two of three areas, whether that's pace, accuracy or skill" – having until that point worried that the 90mph narrative might prevent him from reaching his ultimate goal.
Since then, he has become quicker than he was, more skilful than before, the most potent force in an Essex attack that was the constant in their dominance of the last five years. When he's near his best, they tend to win; it's not often that he's off-colour. So great was the outcry after he was initially left out of the Lions' trip to Australia last winter, it forced a change of plan.
Of the 130 highest wicket-takers in this year's County Championship, only two bowlers – Robinson and Mohammad Abbas – have a superior average; with two games remaining, Cook, who counts David Masters, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Chris Silverwood among the bowlers he admired growing up, is on course to pass 50 wickets for a second summer in succession.
"It was just Masters' sheer economy rate, not giving anything away, while also being able to run through teams," he said. "As an academy player seeing how he worked, I took an awful lot from him." More recently, he has watched Essex overseas recruits Mohammad Amir, Peter Siddle and Neil Wagner from up-close.
Sam Cook has become one of the leading bowlers in the country (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
Last year was wet, the pitches green and his success perhaps somewhat unnoticed given the favourable conditions. There was understandably a self-doubt among plenty of bowlers like Cook around whether their collective success hinged on such favourable conditions or if it could sustain when the sun came out and the going got tough.
But in a season of run-scoring records and floundering bowlers, to replicate his prior statistics is rightly turning heads. Even if Essex's bowlers have benefited from a couple of poor Chelmsford surfaces along the way, more than two thirds of Cook's wickets have come away from home.
Like Sam Conners, the Derbyshire seamer rewarded for his efforts with selection in the Lions' win over the touring South Africans, being recognised at this juncture – in the midst of a year that has seen batters dominate and the Dukes ball offer little respite – means something. If you've succeeded this year as a domestic seamer, then you've deserved whatever luck you've made.
This summer The Cricketer has spoken to several seamers on the county circuit, all of whom have unashamedly raved of his skillset, some of whom have wished they were him. Cook isn't built to bowl genuinely fast, but he has improved within the confines of his physique to the point that he has become the example to follow.
"I look at guys like that and I find them really impressive," said Ethan Bamber, the Middlesex seamer. As Chris Rushworth, a taker of 603 first-class wickets, put it in a tweet last week: "Don't often give an opinion, but this bloke is fucking mint."
"I think it's probably just the hunger to play for England," Cook insisted earlier this summer, speaking of his thirst for self-improvement after a T20 Blast win over Middlesex in which he claimed a triple-wicket maiden. He finished that over with two slips and a gully, and two months later came out of The Hundred as its sixth-most prolific seamer, the leader of Trent Rockets' tournament-winning attack and as player of the match in the final.
"I'm desperate to keep on putting my name in the hat for England and trying to break into that setup."
Cook represented England Lions earlier this summer against South Africa (Steve Bardens/Getty Images)
Partly, that's because he has seen how much good it will do his game: he puts much of his progression through 2022 down to spending a portion of last winter picking the brains of James Anderson and Stuart Broad in Australia, "getting tips from them and watching their habits off the field, how they look after themselves between games nutritionally".
That exercise has led to a tweak in his approach to practice: "I've just got more mature as a bowler. I try to be critical in my training – sometimes volume isn't always the best. It's really small, specific sessions that go a lot further."
Hard work comes naturally, having been part of a comparatively brilliant team at Loughborough University, which featured professional colleagues James Bracey, Hassan Azad, Sam Evans, Charlie Thurston, Robbie White and Michael Burgess, where pushing each other was instilled as par for the course and the resultant environment often credited for their achievements in the years since.
"We probably didn't realise how good our team was," Cook told The Cricketer last year. "But as an environment, you're all pushing yourself and it kind of pushes you out of your comfort zone a bit because you go from being quite comfortable in your age-group team or your academy where you feel like you're established.
"It reminded me a bit of going to play grade cricket in Australia; all of a sudden, you're shoved into this environment where no one really knows each other and you've played each other a bit, but you have to prove yourself. Even though you were on a summer contract, you quite quickly felt like you might not walk into this team. Training with that quality week in week out, I think it has benefited us across the board."
His development extends to having usurped Jamie Porter as the leader of Essex's attack, though the depth of respect between the pair means that tag is unlikely to sit comfortably with him. There was a time when Porter's continued overlooking by England was seen as an unjust slight, but that label is increasingly now Cook's.
Cook enjoyed a successful Hundred campaign with Trent Rockets (David Rogers/Getty Images)
His captain, Tom Westley, called him "world-class" following his latest demolition of Kent at Canterbury, where he has 25 career wickets at 7.56 apiece, and a natural heir to Anderson when the time comes. Only at two venues in the country – the Ageas Bowl and Edgbaston – does he average in excess of 28.
"I don't think there's a better seamer," added Westley. "The stats will back it up, he gets wickets in the first innings, the second innings, at Chelmsford and away from Chelmsford and he's phenomenal. I haven't seen a seamer bowl better than him whenever we've played against any team. He's improving year on year."
You hope, then, that if the opportunity for an international debut does come this winter in Pakistan, with England's seam-bowling stocks likely to be restricted by a mixture of long-term injuries and pragmatism around what is sensible for the older guard, his returns will be treated with the requisite perspective. As Australia found when they toured earlier in 2022, the pitches have a tendency to be concrete-flat and the balls depressingly soft.
If Cook gets the chance that his determination has deserved, don't judge him – or county cricket – on the level of his threat in those alien conditions, even if the evidence of recent years suggests he has the mentality to find a way of making it work.
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