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Can Alastair Cook break Sachin Tendulkar's record for most Test runs?

I'm hoping. He's one of my favourite cricketers and would really love to see him get there.
 
I can see COOKY breaking Tendulkar’s record for Most runs in test cricket...
but he simply has no chance of breaking Tendulkar’s record for most centuries in test cricket...
 
would be an atrocity if he manages it

it is like james anderson taking more wickets than mcgrath

the gulf between the two batsmen is massive
 
In tests the gulf isn't so big Tendulkar in opener type conditions averages 40 (37 innings) with a sub 20 score on board eg 10-2 15-2.
Cook opens in England aswell where conditions can favour bowlers more than batsmen.
 
In tests the gulf isn't so big Tendulkar in opener type conditions averages 40 (37 innings) with a sub 20 score on board eg 10-2 15-2.
Cook opens in England aswell where conditions can favour bowlers more than batsmen.

That's because Sachin was not an opener. Sachin averages 43 at #6, while Laxman averages 50. Does that mean Laxman is better than him?

They have a 7 point average difference between them, despite Cook facing weaker bowlers.
 
That's because Sachin was not an opener. Sachin averages 43 at #6, while Laxman averages 50. Does that mean Laxman is better than him?

They have a 7 point average difference between them, despite Cook facing weaker bowlers.

tendu is better no doubt but u cant compare batsamen only on batting averages,,cook ha his own uniqueness as an opener,,
 
That's because Sachin was not an opener. Sachin averages 43 at #6, while Laxman averages 50. Does that mean Laxman is better than him?

They have a 7 point average difference between them, despite Cook facing weaker bowlers.

Although I'm not sure this could be because early on Sachin batted at 6 as a teenager early 20s when he wasn't as prolific as later on.
Had he batted at no 6 in his prime there is every chance he would've averaged 55-60+ maybe.
 
LOL at the naivety of some of the posts. Players careers are never linear. Very few sustain their performances as they sunset their careers. Cook will struggle to score 11000 runs @ 45. He will retire with approx 35 100's. You heard it here first.

well, he is past the 11,000 now, and catching up on those hundreds :)
 
The best thing about it is England have a major issue with the top 3, so even if he starts thinking about it, he would be talked out of retiring.
Anyways sanga could have easily broken the record if he wanted to
 
The record itself is predicated on a certain level of selfishness tbh so I don't think Cook should be concerned about that. He should play to the best of his ability as long as he can instead of dragging on for some pointless landmarks like the 100th hundred or the 200th Test or so on..
 
He can but he still won't be among all time greats because of his inabilities against better attacks.

Root is the one I back to break this record.He has all it takes for a player to become an all time great. Cook doesn't really come among the greats of the game to do so.
 
he hasnt shown any hunger for it... I dont think so the max he will reach would be around 42 hundreds at best
 
No, because he's eventually going to lose his form permanently and he won't get a long rope playing for England.
 
The record itself is predicated on a certain level of selfishness tbh so I don't think Cook should be concerned about that. He should play to the best of his ability as long as he can instead of dragging on for some pointless landmarks like the 100th hundred or the 200th Test or so on..


If I was you, I would get some personal protection, just saying :-P
 
Not looking impossible is it? He is a run machine.
 
I hope he doesn't break it, the highest run tally should belong to somebody who is inarguably an ATG. He wouldn't even get into all time England XI as an opener.
 
I hope he doesn't break it, the highest run tally should belong to somebody who is inarguably an ATG. He wouldn't even get into all time England XI as an opener.

I totally get where you are coming from. I posted on the previous page of this thread to similar effect. However, at the end of the day, if Cook breaks the record, then he will have deserved to do so by definition, because he will have scored enough runs. And that is the factual situation that will ultimately count. Not my opinion or your opinion. But essentially I agree with you.
 
Cook is a better opener than Tendulkar would he average 55 at no4 we'll never know.
 
I hope he doesn't break it, the highest run tally should belong to somebody who is inarguably an ATG. He wouldn't even get into all time England XI as an opener.

I hope he gets it... It will expose the fact that Tendulkar's selfish longevity records are meaningless and that Gavaskar, Don and Viv are superior batsmen.... Maybe even Ponting, Sanga and Lara....
 
I hope he gets it... It will expose the fact that Tendulkar's selfish longevity records are meaningless and that Gavaskar, Don and Viv are superior batsmen.... Maybe even Ponting, Sanga and Lara....

You missed Courtney Walsh and Allan Donald too. I think even they were better batsmen than Sachin
 
The debate should be kept limited to Cook and whether he can achieve Tendulkar's achievement or not. No point in changing the debate to where does Tendulkar rank among greatest.That is not the point of thread and people can be happy with wherever they rank him because that is not the debate here.
 
Cook has to be selfish like Tendulkar to break Tendulkar's record.

He won't get there even if he's "selfish" :yk To score 4000+ runs after the age of 33 is no joke. It's very very difficult to break tendulkar's record even with longevity, that's why tendulkar is the greatest cricketer in the history of the game.
 
He won't get there even if he's "selfish" :yk To score 4000+ runs after the age of 33 is no joke. It's very very difficult to break tendulkar's record even with longevity, that's why tendulkar is the greatest cricketer in the history of the game.
Sangakara,Graham Gooch,Viv Richards,Lara, Kallis, were in good form and were scoring runs when they retired and they could have played another 2 years if they wished so. Misbah played up to 43 years of age without being a burden to the team.So,it is well possible that Cook can play another 50 odd tests keeping his form and fitness.
 
Sangakara,Graham Gooch,Viv Richards,Lara, Kallis, were in good form and were scoring runs when they retired and they could have played another 2 years if they wished so. Misbah played up to 43 years of age without being a burden to the team.So,it is well possible that Cook can play another 50 odd tests keeping his form and fitness.

If ifs and buts were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers' hands, Viv lara never had the longevity to last as long, in fact viv was pretty bad in the last couple of years of his career once he lost his hand eye coordination, gooch doesn't even deserve to be mentioned alongside those names. Sangakara did well to retire when he did, we've already seen that once a players loses form due to age it is a very steep fall, guys like ponting and dravid went from averaging 58 in test cricket to retiring with an average of 51, so no, not everyone can last 200 test matches, in fact only one player in the history of the game has lasted 200 games ( and when you add 463 odis to it, it becomes almost impossible to believe that a player can endure such a huge amount of cricket).

Cook can try and play another 50 matches but once he loses his form ( he's already lost his form, he averages 40 in the last 2 years) he is only going to get worse
 
Sangakara,Graham Gooch,Viv Richards,Lara, Kallis, were in good form and were scoring runs when they retired and they could have played another 2 years if they wished so. Misbah played up to 43 years of age without being a burden to the team.So,it is well possible that Cook can play another 50 odd tests keeping his form and fitness.

Viv Richards was in good from when he retired?
 
If ifs and buts were pots and pans, there'd be no work for tinkers' hands, Viv lara never had the longevity to last as long, in fact viv was pretty bad in the last couple of years of his career once he lost his hand eye coordination, gooch doesn't even deserve to be mentioned alongside those names. Sangakara did well to retire when he did, we've already seen that once a players loses form due to age it is a very steep fall, guys like ponting and dravid went from averaging 58 in test cricket to retiring with an average of 51, so no, not everyone can last 200 test matches, in fact only one player in the history of the game has lasted 200 games ( and when you add 463 odis to it, it becomes almost impossible to believe that a player can endure such a huge amount of cricket).

Cook can try and play another 50 matches but once he loses his form ( he's already lost his form, he averages 40 in the last 2 years) he is only going to get worse

How about the last 2 years of Sachin? I am bad in the statistics,but as far as i remember Sachin was not that Sachin in his last 2 years.He just played on and on to fulfill that majic no. 200 in test cricket.He should have retired earliar.
 
How about the last 2 years of Sachin? I am bad in the statistics,but as far as i remember Sachin was not that Sachin in his last 2 years.He just played on and on to fulfill that majic no. 200 in test cricket.He should have retired earliar.

Sachin averaged around 58 after 177-180 test matches with more test runs and more centuries than anyone else, he could have retired then and still remained untouchable in terms of runs and centuries
 
How about the last 2 years of Sachin? I am bad in the statistics,but as far as i remember Sachin was not that Sachin in his last 2 years.He just played on and on to fulfill that majic no. 200 in test cricket.He should have retired earliar.

Earlier, when?
 
Sachin averaged around 58 after 177-180 test matches with more test runs and more centuries than anyone else, he could have retired then and still remained untouchable in terms of runs and centuries

I searched for his test record in his last 3 years(2010-2013) and found this no: he played 24 tests,41 innings,scored 1389 runs with an average of 35.61 with just 1 hunderd in this period. Any upcoming Indian young batsman could have replaced him and performed better
than him in this period,i am sure.So, what you are saying about Tendulkar isn't true.He faded obviously in his later years as a batsman.He is lucky that he was an Indian and Indian cricket board allowed his selfish dream to fulfill: i.e to play for 200 tests in his last 3 years.
 
I searched for his test record in his last 3 years(2010-2013) and found this no: he played 24 tests,41 innings,scored 1389 runs with an average of 35.61 with just 1 hunderd in this period. Any upcoming Indian young batsman could have replaced him and performed better
than him in this period,i am sure.So, what you are saying about Tendulkar isn't true.He faded obviously in his later years as a batsman.He is lucky that he was an Indian and Indian cricket board allowed his selfish dream to fulfill: i.e to play for 200 tests in his last 3 years.

You can filter stats to suit your agenda, but like I said tendulkar could have easily retired after 180 test matches and still be untouchable in stats. Sure a young Indian batsman ould have replaced Tendulkar in last 2-3 years, but the benefit of having tendulkar in the team for those 2-3 years was he groomed players like kohli, rahane, sharma, pujara and he left behind a team which became no. 1 in the world, we all know what happened to the lankan team when sanga retired without grooming the youngsters, so Tendulkar actually did us a favour by staying those 2-3 years
 
You can filter stats to suit your agenda, but like I said tendulkar could have easily retired after 180 test matches and still be untouchable in stats. Sure a young Indian batsman ould have replaced Tendulkar in last 2-3 years, but the benefit of having tendulkar in the team for those 2-3 years was he groomed players like kohli, rahane, sharma, pujara and he left behind a team which became no. 1 in the world, we all know what happened to the lankan team when sanga retired without grooming the youngsters, so Tendulkar actually did us a favour by staying those 2-3 years

Yes,i also agree that Sachin should have retired in 2011 when he has already played 176 tests with a very good average.And he would have been still the highest run getter ever with around 14600 runs.He just prolonged his career for record.Thats where he has lost my respect.Sangakkara,Kallis,Lara could have pronged their career as they were going so strong,much more stronger than Tendulkar was going at his end part of career.But they retired gracefully with a strong desire in the mind of all the fans that " Oh,he could play more and could score much more".But Sachin retired with an exclamation mark and question mark in majority of fans that "Oh no,this man should have retired 3 years ago!?" That's a huge negative mark for a player with a stature like Sachin.

Srilanka simply don't possess enough talents like India in present generation. Afer retirement of Sanga,Mahela it was bound to happen that Srilanka will go through a tough period whether they retire early or later.But in case of India they are just a amazing supplier of talented batsmen.So i don't think that without Sachin's grooming it would have made any difference.
 
Cook has started to fade. He's likely to struggle in the Ashes if the likes of Starc, Cummins and Hazelwood are fit and playing.

Stats are posted somewhere, but apparently Cook has gotten out for less than 25 more than half the time in his last 50 innings or so. That's not what any team would want from their opener, let alone their primary anchor batsman.
 
Yes,i also agree that Sachin should have retired in 2011 when he has already played 176 tests with a very good average.And he would have been still the highest run getter ever with around 14600 runs.He just prolonged his career for record.Thats where he has lost my respect.Sangakkara,Kallis,Lara could have pronged their career as they were going so strong,much more stronger than Tendulkar was going at his end part of career.But they retired gracefully with a strong desire in the mind of all the fans that " Oh,he could play more and could score much more".But Sachin retired with an exclamation mark and question mark in majority of fans that "Oh no,this man should have retired 3 years ago!?" That's a huge negative mark for a player with a stature like Sachin.

Srilanka simply don't possess enough talents like India in present generation. Afer retirement of Sanga,Mahela it was bound to happen that Srilanka will go through a tough period whether they retire early or later.But in case of India they are just a amazing supplier of talented batsmen.So i don't think that without Sachin's grooming it would have made any difference.

None of them were ranked 1 batsman when they retired. If anything SRT had hit 2nd peak of his career by end of SA series in Jan 2011.

1 year later, 2012 was probably good time to retire.
 
Wasn't he ranked 1 test batsman and ranked 8 ODI batsman in ICC rankings?

Why would anyone retire when he is at top of batting list?

A veteran player should retire when he is on top of his game,not in the bottom.
 
A veteran player should retire when he is on top of his game,not in the bottom.

Why though? That's the most selfish thing one can do, the player has more to offer to the team but instead he chooses to retire for personal glory.
 
Yes. Sachin was a record chaser and his big accolades are longevity records only. Cook merits the accolade. Smith has a chance too.
 
And look at how SL is doing without him while is he scoring centuries in England.

I personally wanted Sangakkara to continue for Srilanka as he was going blazing at the time of retirement. The way he was playing, another 3 years ,he might have broken the record of Tendulkar.But i also respect his decision and respect him as a player very much.He felt that he should retire before loosing slightest of passion to play at the highest level. Misbah played up to 43 years of age as he had the urge and fitness in him to perform.But as soon as you feel that you are not that mentally ready 100 percent to represent your country you should retire. Thats why BCB accepted Shakib's decision for taking him away off the test arena for one series. One should not play only for sake of playing, only for record,only to prolong ones career.At the end of the day it's up to the player who decides about himself as he knows best his mind and body.
 
It would be good if he breaks it.Would shutdown some of the annoying sachin fans.I grew up on Sachin as a 90's kid and but he should have retired on a high after 2011 world cup atleast from ODIs.He is a product of his times but many a times his individual pursuit of glory had affected our team's chances of a win.Hopefully current lot wont go down that path.
 
A veteran player should retire when he is on top of his game,not in the bottom.

So in your opinion it's better if a batsman retires early without contributing to the team rather than someone who continues to try and do well ?

Will never understand this
 
I personally wanted Sangakkara to continue for Srilanka as he was going blazing at the time of retirement. The way he was playing, another 3 years ,he might have broken the record of Tendulkar.But i also respect his decision and respect him as a player very much.He felt that he should retire before loosing slightest of passion to play at the highest level. Misbah played up to 43 years of age as he had the urge and fitness in him to perform.But as soon as you feel that you are not that mentally ready 100 percent to represent your country you should retire. Thats why BCB accepted Shakib's decision for taking him away off the test arena for one series. One should not play only for sake of playing, only for record,only to prolong ones career.At the end of the day it's up to the player who decides about himself as he knows best his mind and body.

Sangakkara as a test batsman was finished. You could clearly see it in his final two series vs Pak and Ind. He knew it himself and retired because of his issues with SLC.

It's a fallacy to assume his runscoring would have continued... he was already showing severe signs of decline in tests. And don't tell me him scoring runs in domestics is proof he's still a world class batsman. This can be very misleading. I followed Ricky Ponting's career towards the end very closely in tests and domestic FC. He would be horrible for Australia but would go to Shield cricket and score hundreds for fun. Towards the end, that gap in quality between tests and FC becomes very pronounced for a batsman in decline.
 
So in your opinion it's better if a batsman retires early without contributing to the team rather than someone who continues to try and do well ?

Will never understand this

I did mention the word veteran,i.e a player who has played and contributed for his team for many years.It doesn't mean early retirement.Sangakkara played for 15 years for Srilanka and was on top of his game when he retired.He could have played for 2 more years easily,but he chose to bid farewell before he becomes a burden for his team.No player knows when he will loose form.His timing was far far better than Sachin, who literally became a burden for his team for 3 years.

If you say Sangakkara was finished,then i feel no urge to make argument.The player who was ranked no 1 test batsman when he reired if become finished,then Ponting ,Sachin we're no more.
 
A veteran player should retire when he is on top of his game,not in the bottom.

a batsman who is on the top of his game should be playing for his country instead of retiring to protect his legacy which is very selfish

sangakkara has proved to be very selfish who retired at his peak in order to protect his stats and now Sri Lanka are badly struggling

a player should only retire when he is no longer good enough

all this talk of retiring on the top is nonsense
 
I did mention the word veteran,i.e a player who has played and contributed for his team for many years.It doesn't mean early retirement.Sangakkara played for 15 years for Srilanka and was on top of his game when he retired.He could have played for 2 more years easily,but he chose to bid farewell before he becomes a burden for his team.No player knows when he will loose form.His timing was far far better than Sachin, who literally became a burden for his team for 3 years.

Sri Lanka have no upcoming batsmen who look anywhere close to what Sanga was doing. Even a Sanga in decline would be useful for the team... even a 40 averaging batsman at number 3 with experience would be gold for them. But he didn't want to even wait around a bit. I can never understand why people think of 'retiring on top' as a good thing. You still have something to contribute, then do it. Doesn't mean you hang around for ages but there is a middle ground.

Sanga and Sachin were on opposite ends of this and both got the timing wrong. Sanga hurt his team by retiring when he still could have been an asset to the team (but at the expense of his own stats) and Sachin hung around for 18 months too long. The middle ground is retiring when you are in decline but atleast do the job of grooming youngsters into the team. Retiring at your peak is as bad as retiring too late.
 
If anyone thinks that Tendulkar achieved something out of this world, try filter his record for 118 tests point, same as YK played in his career and see for yourself that it is not that much of a miracle to score tons of runs. Hopefully, Cook will further consolidate that point soon as well
 
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If anyone thinks that Tendulkar achieved something out of this world, try filter his record for 118 tests point, same as YK played in his career and see for yourself that it is not that much of a miracle to score tons of runs. Hopefully, Cook will further consolidate that point soon as well

Why not filter his record after 177 tests? :yk2
 
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Why not filter his record after 177 tests? :yk2



He is an opener, playing most of his tests in conditions that are condusive to seam/swing so his record (without even looking at it) will be inferior, plus no one is saying Cook is as great a batsman as Tednulkar was...just arguing those records don't mean as much as you guys think!

With YK's example, I think I have proven my point, no need to drag this debate any further
 
If anyone thinks that Tendulkar achieved something out of this world, try filter his record for 118 tests point, same as YK played in his career and see for yourself that it is not that much of a miracle to score tons of runs. Hopefully, Cook will further consolidate that point soon as well

Well Tendulkar's reputation is built around the first 2/3 of his career, say between 1989-2002 when there were great bowlers around, very few batsmen averaged 50 during the 90s and Sachin had 58 inspite of debuting as a tender lad of 16. Sachin did not maintain that standard towards the last 1/3 and hanged around for two more years than he should have.

Tendulkar for some reason did not live up to his true potential. He was a complete world class test batsman by the age of 17-18 when many of his peers were busy cementing their place in state teams. This was an extraordinary talent, for some reason (probably the sheer weight of millions of fans who wanted him to make a 100 everytime he went to bat) did not quite achieve his best. He owns many of the voluminous records but as I have said on thus forum before he kinda stopped growing after the age of 20 or so. He could have done a lot more, his peak years between 1995-2000 were simply extraordinary. He kept piling runs, but many times you got the feel that he did a little more for himself than the team. Perhaps the weak Indian bowling lineup made him think that most of his efforts would be in vain anyway. What Sachin did against great bowlers of the 90s, he did not do much more against relatively inferior bowlers of the 00s. He is an enigma. I would have liked Sachin getting 10000 test runs at 60 rather than 15000 at 53. More active role in Indian wins, especially overseas. Some bigger scores of maybe 300+. And so on. Not everyone thinks Sachin is great because of the sheer volume of runs and hundreds, but because many of those were against some really serious bowling quality against the handicap of mediocre Indian bowling.
 
Well Tendulkar's reputation is built around the first 2/3 of his career, say between 1989-2002 when there were great bowlers around, very few batsmen averaged 50 during the 90s and Sachin had 58 inspite of debuting as a tender lad of 16. Sachin did not maintain that standard towards the last 1/3 and hanged around for two more years than he should have.

Tendulkar for some reason did not live up to his true potential. He was a complete world class test batsman by the age of 17-18 when many of his peers were busy cementing their place in state teams. This was an extraordinary talent, for some reason (probably the sheer weight of millions of fans who wanted him to make a 100 everytime he went to bat) did not quite achieve his best. He owns many of the voluminous records but as I have said on thus forum before he kinda stopped growing after the age of 20 or so. He could have done a lot more, his peak years between 1995-2000 were simply extraordinary. He kept piling runs, but many times you got the feel that he did a little more for himself than the team. Perhaps the weak Indian bowling lineup made him think that most of his efforts would be in vain anyway. What Sachin did against great bowlers of the 90s, he did not do much more against relatively inferior bowlers of the 00s. He is an enigma. I would have liked Sachin getting 10000 test runs at 60 rather than 15000 at 53. More active role in Indian wins, especially overseas. Some bigger scores of maybe 300+. And so on. Not everyone thinks Sachin is great because of the sheer volume of runs and hundreds, but because many of those were against some really serious bowling quality against the handicap of mediocre Indian bowling.

excellent post

tendulkar does not have "high impact" records such as highest score in a test innings,triple hundreds,most runs in a calender year,most runs in a series,hundreds in fourth innings etc etc which a player of his caliber should have achieved.

i think kohli is going to surpass him when it comes to these high impact records.
 
excellent post

tendulkar does not have "high impact" records such as highest score in a test innings,triple hundreds,most runs in a calender year,most runs in a series,hundreds in fourth innings etc etc which a player of his caliber should have achieved.

i think kohli is going to surpass him when it comes to these high impact records.

True. Sehwag, Dravid and Laxman were better than Sachin in some aspects of the game, but there is no doubt these three never matched the Sachin of the 90s anytime.

Sachin had the qualities of Viv and Gavaskar, personifying dominance/grit and technique/stability. Some of us would have liked had he brought out the Viv in him more often. But he brought the Gavaskar in him more often - resulted in sheer volume but not the impact. During the 90s we did see the Viv in him a bit more, but the 00s we didnt see that.
 
he he plays 200 tests which he can easily since england plays so many, he can easily go past sachin's runs tally but not centuries tally.
 
True. Sehwag, Dravid and Laxman were better than Sachin in some aspects of the game, but there is no doubt these three never matched the Sachin of the 90s anytime.

Sorry but no. Sehwag and VVS are extraordinary batsmen but there is no way they're better than SRT in anything when it comes to batting. Only Dravid can be compared to SRT.
 
If anyone thinks that Tendulkar achieved something out of this world, try filter his record for 118 tests point, same as YK played in his career and see for yourself that it is not that much of a miracle to score tons of runs. Hopefully, Cook will further consolidate that point soon as well

Even so, Cook can complete only in one format, whereas Tendulkar was playing consistently in two.

And it doesn't look like Cook has got it in him anyway.
 
Even so, Cook can complete only in one format, whereas Tendulkar was playing consistently in two.

And it doesn't look like Cook has got it in him anyway.

The only small point being that Sachin scored thos runs and centuries playing in the 90's and we all know when avainst what bowlers Younis Khan scored those runs. That's like saying today's players average more than Viv Richards.
 
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Since Cook does the toughest job of opening the innings and that too in England, he has already surpassed Sachin.
 
Since Cook does the toughest job of opening the innings and that too in England, he has already surpassed Sachin.
Balony. Although though he may not be a match-winner, as a pure batsmen, Tendulkar out-performs Cook any day of the week.
 
Balony. Although though he may not be a match-winner, as a pure batsmen, Tendulkar out-performs Cook any day of the week.

I was giving the argument which is made for Cook everytime while talking off his ATG stature even though he is just an England great.
 
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