‘Cook can challenge Sachin’s record’

New Delhi, May 31 

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar believes that Alastair Cook, the youngest entrant in the illustrious 10,000 Test-run club, can challenge batting legend Sachin Tendulkar’s all-time Test runs record.

Cook became the first England cricketer to cross the 10,000-run mark in on Monday, and the youngest overall, beating Tendulkar’s record by five months by reaching the milestone at the age of 31 years and five months. Tendulkar — Test cricket’s most prolific batsman with 15921 runs — was 31 years, 10 months and 20 days old when he scored his 10,000th run in 2005.

“Well, the big advantage that Cook has is that England always play a minimum of 11-12 Test matches in a year. In 11-12 Test matches, even if you score 50 runs per Test match, you are getting about 500 runs every year,” Gavaskar said. “So over the next 6-7 years, Cook might have a terrific year where he scores 1000 runs. So that will certainly give him a chance. He has got age on his side, he’s also one of the very fit players. So if he plays for six to eight years more, he has got a very good chance.” 

Asked whether Cook’s achievement was pretty special considering he’s an opening batsman, Gavaskar replied in the affirmative.

“Yes, it is. The new ball does swing around a little bit more, the pitches can sometimes be a little bit lively. Besides, playing in England is much more difficult against quality opposition. So, I think Cook deserves a lot of praise for getting there,” he said.

Bayliss backs Cook to top Tendulkar total      

England coach Trevor Bayliss, too, believes Alastair Cook has it in him to surpass India great Sachin Tendulkar as all-time leading run-scorer. “It will be about how long he wants to keep doing it,” said Bayliss. “There is time on his side, so there is no reason he couldn’t if his heart is still in it and his will to do it is still there.” Bayliss has no doubt about Cook’s quality. “He is right up there with the best international players. He has these powers of concentration,” he said. “He is not the biggest stroke-player of all time but he knows his game very well, he is very patient and he sticks to it.” — Agencies