Sir Alastair Cook brought up 32,000 career runs for Essex in the Royal London One Day Cup on Monday. The England great eased to 68 off 66 deliveries in his side’s semi-final against Glamorgan whilst Rory Burns and Dom Sibley were becoming the first opening pair for the Three Lions to both fall for a duck in a home Test match.
Cook has been in wonderful form in 50-over cricket this year, and the final run of his innings was his 6,510th in List A cricket. 892 of his runs have come in T20s, with a whopping 24,643 first-class runs making up the rest of the 32,000.
Some England fans were desperately tuning into Cook’s knock as they tried to remember what a resolute opener looked like. ‘Chef’ scored a record 12,472 runs batting at the very top of England’s order, averaging 45.4. The wonders of his achievements, well appreciated during his time, are beginning to look even more stratospheric as England’s top three continues to malfunction.