The England Cricket Captain and opening batsman, Alastair Cook has made a habit of scoring runs and in particular centuries. His latest came last Friday, on the opening day of the second test against Pakistan which is still in progress at Old Trafford. His 105 was his 29th Test century, equalling the great Sir Don Bradman. In May 2015 the prolific left-hander became England’s leading run-scorer in Test matches, surpassing Graham Gooch in the second test against New Zealand at Headingly and exactly a year to the day later he became the youngest batsman to score 10,000 test runs against Sri Lanka in the second test at Chester-le-street.

This penchant for passing the magic 100 milestone began right from the start. At the age of 21, while touring the West Indies with the ECB Academy side in 2006, he was called-up to join England’s tour of India side as a late replacement, scoring 104 on debut. This was to become a familiar pattern, also scoring centuries in his first Test matches against Pakistan, the West Indies and Bangaldesh.

Alastair became England’s ‘Captain Cook’ when fellow opener Andrew Strauss retired in 2012. In 130 Tests he has amassed 10,265 runs at an average of 46.87 and 3,204 runs in his 92 ODI’s. His Test total includes three double centuries, with a top score of 294 against India.

When not scoring runs on the cricket field, Alastair runs a farm near Leighton Buzzard and plays the saxophone. I have meet him on a few occasions, mainly at Lords and he has always been great with the fans, taking time to sign graphs and pose for photos. I didn’t get a chance to catch-up at the first test against Pakistan at Lords last week, so sent my drawing to Old Trafford and it came back signed within two days.