Dubai: With Alastair Cook becoming the youngest player to join the elite 10,000-Test-run club, an interesting question that now comes to people’s minds is whether he can also go on to break Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 15,921 Test runs and become the highest run getter in world cricket.
Cook is just 31 years old and, if he is able to maintain his consistency for another two to three years, he should be able to easily surpass this mark. Tendulkar retired after leaving the mark too high and too hard to achieve. In a recent interview with Gulf News, Tendulkar, when asked what would be needed for anyone to reach the 10,000 mark, made an interesting comment that, to reach that level, a batsman must start afresh every time and keep preparing for a new game assuming that whatever he has achieved is history. Cook has the ability to do it, and it would be useful to follow Tendulkar’s remarks about achievement. Any player, on reaching a landmark, is often hailed by the media as the best and quickly labelled as the greatest. To be able to cope with the demands of expectation is a tough task. Tendulkar had carried the expectations of millions of Indian cricket fans, and for Cook, from now on, each of his innings will be closely observed and analysed more than in the past to determine whether he can break Tendulkar’s record.
The big danger for Cook will be if he slips in his form in the coming three years because with every season the demand on him to reach the mark will get higher. As for Tendulkar, after sailing past the highest run getters, he never faced such a situation though age was also catching up with him.
There was a time when many believed that Ricky Ponting or Jacques Kallis would go on to break Tendulkar’s record, but they ended up scoring only 13,378 and 13,289 runs respectively. Although Cook is technically sound, he is not a demolisher of attacks. He uses the strokes he has mastered with confidence. In an era where every stroke from a player is analysed for weaknesses, Cook’s mastery over his strokes will come in handy. To reach the world record, Cook too must continue to possess Tendulkar’s voracious appetite for runs.
