A stylish left-handed opener with a simple approach to batting, Alastair Cook has been earmarked for great things in the game - not least by his mentor at Essex, Graham Gooch, who threw Cook in at the deep end of county cricket only a year after he left Bedford School, where he had broken all sorts of records. Cook captained England in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh and scored two centuries while leading them to the semi-finals, before scoring his maiden first-class hundred against Leicestershire at Chelmsford in 2004. A fine season followed in 2005 - he scored a double-century for Essex against the touring Australians and was voted Young Cricketer of the Year by the Cricket Writers' Club - and in March 2006 he went on to make his England debut in the midst of an injury crisis in India. He had been touring the Caribbean with the England A squad when the call came but, unfazed after a 48-hour journey, he racked up 60 in his first Test innings, then went one better in the second with a magnificent 104, becoming the 16th England batsman to make a century on debut, and at 21 years and 69 days, the youngest since Peter May in 1951. Back-to-back hundreds against Pakistan in 2006 cemented his place in the side and he was named Young Cricketer of the Year for the second time in 2006. The Ashes tour proved more of a challenge, as his technique was dissected by Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee, but his century in the second innings at Perth confirmed his mental fortitude. He was still not 23 when he scored his fifth and sixth Test centuries in the 3-0 series win over West Indies - not far adrift of the indisputable greats Don Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar, who had managed eight by the same age. Having missed England's disastrous World Cup in the Caribbean, Cook was soon cast as an opener in one-day cricket as well. He became the youngest England batsman to pass 2000 Test runs in New Zealand in 2008 on a tour in which he only managed one fifty, but his catching improved out of all recognition. Gone were the awkward fumbles; in came the daring dives at backward point, pouching six beauties in the first Test in Hamilton. His penchant for a clichéd soundbite belies a fierce determination to improve as a cricketer on every level, in every match.
Will Luke April 2008

NBC Denis Compton Award 2003
NBC Denis Compton Award 2004
Young Cricketer of the Year 2005
NBC Denis Compton Award 2005
NBC Denis Compton Award 2006

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Aug 11, 2008 Makhaya Ntini has Alastair Cook caught in the slips © AFP

Aug 11, 2008 Alastair Cook works the ball to leg during his confident innings © Getty Images

Aug 11, 2008 Alastair Cook cracks a boundary square during his 67 © Getty Images

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