{"id":41122,"date":"2018-09-04T11:14:07","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T11:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/?p=41122"},"modified":"2018-09-04T15:56:43","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T15:56:43","slug":"i-know-the-timing-is-right-says-an-emotional-alastair-cook-on-his-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/i-know-the-timing-is-right-says-an-emotional-alastair-cook-on-his-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"I know the timing is right, says an emotional Alastair Cook on his retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

England batsman Alastair Cook will retire from international cricket after this week’s Test against India, saying Monday there is “nothing left in the tank” after 12 record-breaking years in the team.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An elegant and gritty left-handed opener, Cook is leaving the international game holding a slew of national records in Tests: most runs (12,254), most appearances (160), most centuries (32) and most Tests at captain (59). He played in 158 straight tests a world record and captained England from 2012-17, during which the team won back-to-back home Ashes series and a first series victory in India in 27 years.<\/p>\n

Cook has endured a lean summer at the top of the order for England, averaging only 15.57 in seven innings against India. But he stands sixth in the all-time list of leading Test run-scorers, just above West Indies great Brian Lara, and needs 147 at The Oval to move past Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara in fifth place.<\/p>\n

“He’s probably not the most naturally gifted cricketer,” former England captain Alec Stewart said, “there will be others with far more natural talent that haven’t got the mental strength.<\/p>\n

“The combination of what Cook has, both talent and mental strength, has meant he’s played for a very long time and has broken every single record going.”<\/p>\n

Cook, who will play next summer for English county Essex, made his test debut in March 2006 as a late replacement for Michael Vaughan and made an unbeaten 104 in the second innings. He missed the third test of that series because of illness but hasn’t missed one since.<\/p>\n

He will be remembered, among other things, for the graceful way he often tucked the ball off his hips for a single. He had a rare ability to bat for long periods \u2014 he has five double-centuries in tests without losing focus and concentration whatever the conditions. And he almost always pulled out a big score when it was most needed, for the team and also for himself to get over dips in form.<\/p>\n

Cook surpassed his own mentor, Graham Gooch, when he exceeded 8,900 test runs three years ago and that meant so much. As a 7-year-old, Cook lined up to get Gooch’s autograph outside Essex’s ground and they went on to become close friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

England batsman Alastair Cook will retire from international cricket after this week’s Test against India, saying Monday there is “nothing left in the tank” after 12 record-breaking years in the team. An elegant and gritty left-handed opener, Cook is leaving the international game holding a slew of national records in Tests: most runs (12,254), most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,315],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41124,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41122\/revisions\/41124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}