Abu Dhabi: Alastair Cook could surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s all-time best Test run-scorers’ tally now that he is free from the constraints of the England captaincy, according to his old adversary Ricky Ponting.
The former Australia captain heaped praise on Cook after the 32-year-old batsman stepped down as England skipper on Monday after a country record 59 matches in charge.
And he maintains that Cook is young enough and good enough to better the Indian great Tendulkar’s 15,921 Test runs, with the Englishman currently 10th in the all-time standings with 11,057.
“Look, I’m not really one for records; I don’t follow records. But what’s he got now? More than 11,000?,” said Ponting, who is second to Tendulkar in the pantheon of Test run-scorers with 13,378, in an exclusive interview with Gulf News in Abu Dhabi.
“Look, he could [surpass Tendulkar]. He’s still a relatively young player in his early 30s and Sachin played until he was nearly 40. That will all be up to Alastair.
“If he’s someone driven by those personal stats and milestones, I don’t know. For me, I was never driven by that sort of stuff. It was all about how many games I could play with my team and helping the team to win games, so let’s see what happens with Alastair.”
Ponting, 42, who retired in 2012 after captaining Australia between 2004 and 2011, is “not surprised” by Cook’s decision to stand down as captain given the endless media speculation about it.
And, after taking part in the Gary Player Invitational golf event at the Saadiyat Beach Golf Club on Monday, he added: “Certainly from my point of view, I’d like to congratulate him on what a great job he’s done as the captain of England. His play since he’s been captain over the last couple of years has been of the high standard that he set early on in his career. I think it’s the right move for him and English cricket.”
Ponting would not be drawn on Cook’s likely successor, Joe Root, stressing “I don’t know him and have heard different things about him”.
And he is unsure whether Cook’s retirement is good or bad news for Australia ahead of the Ashes series, which starts in November.
“Look, I don’t think we will know until the end of the series if it’s a good decision or a bad decision,” said Ponting, who played 168 Tests.
“He’s made the right decision for him and I’m sure when he’s thought about making the decision, that it’s not just right for him but English cricket as well.”
Cook was widely derided as being a conservative and boring captain, particularly by Ponting’s former team-mate Shane Warne.
Did Ponting agree with Warne?
“To be totally honest, I probably didn’t critique or analyse Cook’s captaincy as much as Shane did. When I retired, I wasn’t really in the game, so I wasn’t watching it as closely.
“Quite often, there’s nothing wrong in setting plans and sticking to them for long periods of time. I know Shane’s a bit of a thinker and likes to change fields and things with different tactics and when you’ve got bowlers like [James] Anderson and [Stuart] Broad and Steven [Finn] and [Tim] Bresnan and guys like they [England] had, you can quite often set plans and not change things too much and wait for those plans to play out.
“I’m sure that that is the way that Cook was probably approaching things early on in his career. I think he’s probably had to change and adapt, certainly captaining teams in India where you have to do things in a slightly different way.”
