Alistair Cook

[Owzat]

I was updating some records I have for Cook, pretty much kept them since he showed a tendancy to get out after making fifties ie got in then got out. This is a staggering stat though, he scores under 25 runs in a whopping 49.5% of his innings, so you could say fails half the time.

Cook batting averages by score

Ducks : 3 inns, 0 runs @ 0.00
01-09 : 20 inns, 107 runs @ 5.63
10-24 : 30 inns, 502 runs @ 17.31
25-49 : 19 inns, 689 runs @ 38.28
50-65 : 15 inns, 881 runs @ 58.73
66-99 : 7 inns, 585 runs @ 83.57
100+ : 13 inns, 1590 runs @ 159.00

0-24 : 53 inns, 609 runs @ 11.94
25+ : 54 inns, 3745 runs @ 74.90

36.5% of his runs come through his hundreds, although nine of those 13 hundreds have come against Bangladesh (2), West Indies (4) and Pakistan (3).

As for results by hundreds scored

104no vs India : Drew
105 vs Pakistan : Drew
127 vs Pakistan : Won
116 vs Australia : Lost
105 vs West Indies : Drew
106 vs West Indies : Won
118 vs Sri Lanka : Drew
139no vs West Indies : Drew
160 vs West Indies : Drew
118 vs South Africa : Won
173 vs Bangladesh : Won
109no vs Bangladesh : Won
110 vs Pakistan : Lost?

P12 W5 D6 L1 with one still in progress, but at 55/1 looking like it will be a second loss with Cook scoring a hundred. You might as well discount the Bangladesh hundreds as England would probably have won regardless who opened the batting or what they scored.

 

[pcfan123]

Either way he will be opening in the Ashes. Lets not forget he was the Captain not too long ago :laugh and the current VC. His lack of front foot technique should be less of an issue down under , his backfoot strength can only help them there.

I hope this latest 100 does not mean he is an automatic selection now for the next year. It seems the England camp is a very closed set up once you get in, I feel bad for any batsman performing well in county, its almost futile.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

the irony is england is using the the pakistan series as a warm up for the ashes and yet the quality of bowling their batsmen are facing is along with the conditions of a humid english summer, mean they are facing significantly better attack than anything they'll have to deal with in australia.

I would think cook, strauss, trott and KP will do pretty well in australia barring a total loss of form.

the poor bowlers are going to be the ones under the kosh, wickets will be far harder to come by.

 

[Robelinda]

Cant imagine the Poms are shaking in their boots about our pace attack, i expect they will score really well. They didnt do too bad in the first 3 ashes tests last aussie tour in 06/07, but a few low totals in the first innings of brisbane and perth made it hard. If those same guys - and it will be the same top order plus Trott- can score against Warne and McGrath they really should feast against our current bowlers.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I guess it's the collapses that are the worry. england have lost an awful lot of wickets for very few runs several times this series.

by the way, how odd is it in a summer that england, australia and pakistan all played in similar conditions a bangladeshi batsman has been far and away the outstanding performer?

 

[Fatal Shot]

Tamim should do a Morgan and apply for a Pakistani passport.

 

[War]

We have seen this episode with Cook before. Struggled last summer in the Ashes, entered the SA tour with his place under pressure & scored a career saving hundred.

Same thing has happened now again. Not sure what to make of this, but hopefully for ENGs sake he can actually bring some consistency to his bowling when facing good attacks. Since watching him batting since Ashes 06/07 has been woefully frustrating.

War added 1 Minutes and 39 Seconds later...

Cant imagine the Poms are shaking in their boots about our pace attack, i expect they will score really well. They didnt do too bad in the first 3 ashes tests last aussie tour in 06/07, but a few low totals in the first innings of brisbane and perth made it hard. If those same guys - and it will be the same top order plus Trott- can score against Warne and McGrath they really should feast against our current bowlers.

For once we slightly disagree Sir Rob.

I certainly expect AUS pace attack (once they bowl to potential) to own ENG batting more often than not in Ashes. Especially with KP not in the best of form.

 

[Fatal Shot]

Well the selectors should look at the fact that in his last 10 innings he only has around 220 runs in total. An average of 22. One good innings out of 10 surely does not earn you a free ride on the Ashes plane ride. 1 out of 10... Lots of players can do that. I expect Cook to play one blinder of an Ashes innings, and his typical self in the other 9. And by typical, I mean the rigidity, awkward one where he looks unsure of where his off-stump is.

 

[Iridium]

Don't expect many surprises for the Ashes squad. With Cook scoring that century, that's in all likelihood sealed his spot. Usually when a player is under pressure to secure his spot, they come good. Like Marcus North did when he performed well in New Zealand, that took some of the heat off. So you'll probably see KP score big when (or if) his place comes under question.

 

[sifter132]

This is a staggering stat though, he scores under 25 runs in a whopping 49.5% of his innings, so you could say fails half the time.

Disagree. That's almost normal I'd say.

*And having done my research now*

Check the stats since 2000 for all opening batsmen playing in Tests (except Ban and Zim Tests):
2718 dismissals (Total Dismissals)
+ 61 scores of 25* or more (Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | Cricinfo.com)
= 2779 innings,
1431 of which were ended for less than 25 (Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | Cricinfo.com) or 51.49% of innings that were under 25. So Cook is in fact above average in that department...

Just be happy you haven't got Marcus North. In 28 innings, he's been dismissed below 25 19 times which is 67.86% of the time. There's also been quite a few good players through the years who failed quite a bit. Steve Waugh comes to mind immediately. I'd say he would have scored less than 25 more than 50% of the time.