Why do Engerland bother. Haha. only joking. Another good day for the captain and england in control after day 2.
2,000ish behind GG. only been playing for england 6 years i think too. Thos group should hold all the records. Englands best team.
England's best team? Or an era where certain big nations have either dropped off the face of the earth, focused on different formats of the game, or are new to cricket and developing (West Indies, India and Bangladesh). Cook is in phenomenal form, and I think he'll end up with more test runs than Tendulkar when he retires, but it's such a different sport to 20 years ago. They play more often these days as well don't forget.
You're spot on about Cook, he is going to become an all time great batsman but I don't agree with you about this being Englands best team however there is little point in discussing.
Gooch was also banned for 3 years from test cricket. The lad Cook has a good chance of beating Gooch`s record if he can maintain form and stay injury free.
They do play more now but in terms of matches, he's getting the runs quicker than most English batsmen in history.
My point being that arguably against weaker opposition. Before India his average was lower than some of the names at the top of the run scoring charts.
avergaes 50 which in any era is fantastic , still the greats of englands past all averaged around 55 this most centuries is a nice stat but as there are now more tests id rather look at averages that totals
But he played over 20 years. Now you wouldn't get near team at 20 years old. Cooks been playing or what 6 years. hes the youngest player to 7000 runs, Captain fantastic too. cook in my opinion, is the real deal. Iain Botham smashes this its easier now too. You get found out quicker too. England have a full time Test analyst and a one day analyst too. other teams will have that. There isn't any free runs in the field because fieldings got a lot better too.
86 tests in 6 years about 14 tests a year when he is at his best, Gooch with his ban played 118 tests in 16 years about 7.5 tests a year over 19 year period. Whilst Cook may, and I hope he does, break the record because thats what records are there for, nothing can be taken away from Gooch and his batting that excelled in that era. Both excellent batsman and I for one am proud of seeing both of them in their prime.
It is a strong England team, but I can't recall a time when the other teams were so weak, especially the bowling department. Most sides used to have at least one superstar, and most had a duo of top class ones. Nowadays, only ours and, most notably, South Africa's are worth a mention. The rest are weak to the point of laughable.
Maybe so but Clarkes a very good side player for aussies and Gayle and Samuels are very good player for WI. India also have some good young players. Ashwin, kohli good players. NZ i don't think they offer anything to trouble England and if Cook KP and one or two of bolwers want to have a game off it should be during that series with Aussies latter in summer and then winter in Australia with it been a back to back tests.
Agree there are some good batsmen, but there isn't a bowling attack that players will fear, with the exception of South Africa's. I'd fancy my chances against most of them, and I was a shocking batsman.
