Sir Alastair Nathan Cook CBE (born 25 December 1984) is an English former cricketer and former captain of the England Test and One-Day International (ODI) teams.

[15] Cook was born in Gloucester; his mother Stephanie is a teacher from Swansea,[16] while his father Graham worked as a telecommunications engineer and enjoyed village cricket.

[48] Before the Test series, he helped Essex force the follow on against Kent in the County Championship but faltered with his team, scoring only 4 in the second innings to lose by 192 runs.

He joined them in their bid to defend their Friends Provident Trophy matching Varun Chopra's 65 in a 124 run partnership against Lancashire to gain a place in the semi-final.

[68] After the 2005 domestic season he was part of the intake for the ECB National Academy, but this was interrupted as he flew to Pakistan to cover the squad for Michael Vaughan's knee injury.

[36] After not being used in the first XI he travelled back with the academy to the West Indies in the new year scoring 101 in a two-day match against Antigua before youth cricket came to an abrupt halt for Cook.

[71] Unlike Shah and Anderson, Cook was welcomed straight into the England XI and made his Test debut aged 21, days after he had flown in from the West Indies.

He made an instant impact, opening with Andrew Strauss and scoring a half century in the first innings before being bowled just before tea on the first day for 60 runs from 160 balls being the second top scorer after 134 from Paul Collingwood.

[83] Cook's first taste of victory came in the second Test, guiding the team past the target of 78 in the second innings with an unbeaten 34 alongside Andrew Flintoff furthering the reputation of his calm, meticulous style of play against the dangerous spin of Muttiah Muralitharan who took 4–29.

[84] Although not initially selected for the one-day series, Cook made his limited overs debut in the fourth match scoring 39 from 38 balls in a bright spot of an otherwise dour England performance hampered by injuries.

[85] At the start of the following series against Pakistan, Cook recorded his second Test century, gaining him a spot on the boards at Lord's alongside Ian Bell and Collingwood.

However, he was named for the 2006–07 Ashes series touring party and when Trescothick pulled out once again due to stress, Cook re-earned a spot as an opener for the foreseeable future.

[147] After the third Test was abandoned due to the poor quality of the surface, Cook was again beleaguered by his perennial problem: he scored two half centuries against opening partner Strauss's 169.

Put back in with one day to spare, Strauss fell for 33, but, after 38 innings' and fifteen months' waiting, Cook finally arrived at his eighth Test century, and went on to pass his highest score with an unbeaten 139 before play ended in a draw.

[158] This partnership, along with Strauss' anchoring throughout the innings, led England to a total of 425 and enabled them to gain a 210-run first-innings lead, aided by three catches from Cook off James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

However, in the field Cook was part of Australia's first innings collapse, taking two catches off Graeme Swann to dismiss the top scoring opener Simon Katich and the penultimate wicket of Stuart Clark.

[173] By virtue of being captain, Cook returned to England's ODI squad for the first time since 2008 and led the team as an opening batsmen to a three win whitewash with respectable scores.

Following a century in one of the warm-up games, Cook opened his series account with 67 as England won the toss and batted at the Gabba in Brisbane.

With this partnership, Cook and Strauss became England's highest scoring opening partners across their four years together, beating an eighty-year-old record set by Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe; albeit taking 44 more innings to do so.

[180] Cook, along with his teammates in a losing effort, performed poorly in the third Test but contributed to an innings victory in the fourth, becoming the series' leading run scorer after scoring 82.

Cook was expected to be a key player when England met India, with the series winners taking over the world number one spot.

In the third match of the series Cook hit a brilliant 294 to help England win the game by an innings and clinch the World's number one spot.

In the first Test against Sri Lanka England's form showed no sign of improving and they lost the first match of the series, with Cook being dismissed for a duck in the first innings.

[194] In the first Test against New Zealand on home soil, Cook got made good starts in both innings but was unable to convert these scores past fifty.

Upon returning from Australia, Andy Flower resigned but Cook vowed to continue as captain and was later backed by the ECB to help to mould a new England team.

[196][deprecated source] Cook continued to struggle for form in the Test series against Sri Lanka, scoring 17 and 28 as England drew the game.

On 27 July, in the third Test against India at the Rose Bowl, Cook scored 95 in the first innings which showed that he was getting back in form with confidence before getting out to Ravindra Jadeja.

Cook took advantage of favourable batting conditions in the following Test, making 76 in an opening partnership of 125 in England's first innings with Jonathan Trott.

In the second innings, Cook made 59* in a comfortable run chase to win the Test by nine wickets and help England to secure 1–0 lead in the three match series.

[217] He is also an active patron of the David Randall Foundation, a charity that carries the name of his childhood friend and opening partner at Maldon CC & Essex age group sides.