The 12th member of the club and the youngest player (31 years, 5 months, 5 days) to do so.
He is also the fastest in terms of time taken to get there (Test debut 1st March, 2006).** Cook has already played 128 test matches in a little more than a decade **(10,042 runs at 46.49 with 28 hundreds). By contrast Younis who made his debut on 26th Feb. 2001 has only played 104 tests so far (and would have probably played 70 to 80 tests max. in a decade). So playing for England and Australia is a huge advantage as a player as you get to play more matches during your peak years.
Sachin Tendulkar reached 10,000 Test runs in 195 innings, joint quickest with West Indies’ Brian Lara and Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara
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It surprises me that it has taken 29 long years for an Englishman to join the club considering that England regularly play 14-16 tests per year!!! **(more than any other nation)…since Indian great Gavaskar first achieved the feat against Pakistan in 1987
Pakistan, NewZealand and Bangladesh are yet to have a player breach the 10,000-run mark in test matches. Hopefully Younis Khan - 9116 runs at 53.94 with 31 test hundreds - will get there soon
Cook’s average of 46.49 is not exceptional considering he’s playing in an era of batting-friendly rules and pitches. He should look to get it above 50, widely considered to be the benchmark for batting greatness in test cricket. It is a healthy average nevertheless as it is not easy both opening and captaining the side as well.
However it has to be said that Gavaskar (the only other opener in this club) scored his runs against much better bowlers - Windies quartet, Lillee, Imran, Hadlee, Botham, Thompson etc. Imran Khan and Michael Holding dismissed Gavaskar 11 times each.
Interestingly Cook has scored more runs (< 5,000 at home) abroad which shows that he adjusts and adapts well to different conditions. Infact his average is better outside England (49.32 away and 43.76 at home)
Alastair Cook - Performance Analysis by venue Home / Away - Test Cricket
Mark Nicholas: Alastair Cook, England’s guardian, joins 10K club | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo