4,404 days of Alastair: England opener's new world record will never be beaten

SAM MORSHEAD: It is remarkable how much can change in 12 short years. However, in Cook, who at Headingley today clocked up consecutive Test appearance No.154, England have found an utterly dependable constant

^{Alastair Cook is playing in his 154th consecutive Test match}

When England last fielded a Test XI that did not include Alastair Cook - in India in 2006 - it barely caused a ripple on social media. And for good reason.

Cook, a veteran of just two matches at that point, had been suffering from an upset stomach in Mumbai and was not in a fit state to play.

Furthermore, he had made a meagre return in the second Test following an impressive century in the first.

Perhaps most importantly, though, social media - or at least social media as we now know it - did not exist.

Twitter was conceived in the same month as Cook’s Test debut, and not publicly launched until the following July.

^{Cook made his debut in 2006}

Facebook only opened its doors to anyone with an email address, rather than elite North American universities, that September.

Snapchat’s inventor was an angsty 15-year-old at home with his parents in Los Angeles.

And if you left the term ‘Instagram’ in your search history, there was a very real chance of facing awkward questions from mum and dad about recreational drugs.

You get the point. The world was a very different place. And cricket was a very different sport.

Twenty20 was only three years old, the IPL a figment of Lalit Modi’s imagination, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss got on, the sport would not have seen the purpose of dot-ball percentage and true strike rate, and the English game was just starting a brave new life behind a Sky Sports-shaped paywall.

It is remarkable how much can change in 12 short years.

However, in Cook, who at Headingley today clocked up consecutive Test appearance No.154, England have found an utterly dependable constant.

His new world record, surpassing the 153 Tests in a row played by Allan Border, will never be beaten. Apart from Border, no one in history has made more than 107 Test appearances in succession, while the nearest rival to Cook currently active on the circuit is Nathan Lyon. On 56.

There is a very real prospect, given the changing landscape of international cricket, that anyone just starting out in Tests for countries outside the big three may not even get the chance to play in 150-plus matches over the course of their careers, let alone have the class, durability, form, fitness and mental strength to do so.

^{He has been in the England Test team for 4,404 days}

For the sliver of the young British public who grew up with cricket on Sky Sports, Cook is the mainstay. Old Reliable. He arrived after Channel 4 lost the rights and has remained ever since, playing in every home England Test the pay-per-view broadcaster has ever shown, captaining the side in most. Scoring heavily throughout.

Whenever there have been dips of form, he has battled through them, often emerging from a drought into a waterfall - 294 against India in 2011 after averaging five through the early part of the series, for example, or recent double-tons out of nowhere against West Indies and Australia.

His current record - 12,099 runs at 45.65 with 32 centuries - is formidable for a man who has taken on the world’s fiercest new-ball pairings for more than a decade. Without respite.

ALASTAIR COOK'S TEST RECORD

Matches: 156

Runs: 12,099

Ave: 45.65

100s: 32

HS: 294

So high has Cook set the bar that, since the retirement of Strauss, a parade of opening batsmen have found it impossible to make the leap.

He has outlasted a dozen well-documented partners, from Michael Carberry to Mark Stoneman. Is that down to Cook’s ability or England’s failures to produce adequate competition? Are the two mutually exclusive? Have England relied on Cook too long… at some point, we presume, he has to retire?

In the spring, he addressed that very subject, saying that his struggles in Australia had led him to the verge of a decision. Then came that majestic double-century at the MCG, the highest score at the ground by an overseas player in Tests.

^{His is a record which will surely never be beaten}

“To bat as badly as I did for pretty much two months and then for 10 hours bat as well as I’ve ever done was quite strange. But it showed I’ve still got it. There were some dark moments on that tour when I could have said “I don’t need this anymore” and just jacked it in. But to keep going and then deliver like that proved I’ve got something,” he said.

“You always doubt yourself. That’s a natural thing. It doesn’t get any easier the more you play. When a slightly older player isn’t scoring many runs it’s an easy story to write. Is he going to give up? Is he thinking about it?”

“I questioned myself when it got tough. Am I still good enough to play at the real elite level? I knew the hunger hadn’t gone but was it all worth it? Melbourne was as hard as it could be mentally because I was thinking ‘if I get another couple of low scores things are really going to get hard for me.’ So to bat the way I did…”

One day, Cook will call it quits. One day. But for the past 4,404 - he has spent 12 years and 21 days in the Test team - it has been his responsibility not to give his wicket away. Relinquishing that spot at the top of the order must feel somewhat similar.

No wonder, then, that he is still there, still making runs, still standing at first slip, still offering encouragement to those just starting out among the elite - when Cook made the first of his 154 straight appearances, England’s two Headingley young guns, Sam Curran and Dom Bess, were just seven and eight years old respectively.

One hundred and fifty four consecutive Tests; an extraordinary display of staying power.

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