Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss can bat together

Who'd have thought it? Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss CAN score runs in Australia. Strauss was out for 88 in England's tour game against Western Australia, but Cook's still there, on 106 at the time of writing. Which is early. We can't sleep.

Alastair Cook's appetite for runs

Shortly after reaching his hundred, Alastair Cook received a straight delivery and played yet another forward defensive stroke. We liked that.

It said that just because England were 400 ahead and he had his hundred, there were still days to go in this match, so Ali Cook was just going to carry on doing what he'd been doing all day: Staying in and scoring the odd run.

We admire professionalism. But only in others.

England v West Indies, third Test, day three at Old Trafford
England 370 (Ian Bell 97, Alastair Cook 60)
West Indies 229 (Shivnarine Chanderpaul 50, Monty Panesar 4-50)
England 313 (Alastair Cook 106, Kevin Pietersen 68, Darren Sammy 7-66)
West Indies 22-1

Two things we love about Alastair Cook

(1) If there's half a chance of scoring a hundred, Alastair Cook makes sure he takes it: 15 Tests, five hundreds, three fifties.

(2) He's 22.

We realise that point two could, conceivably, be taken the wrong way, so we'll clarify. Alastair Cook is already a more than decent batsman. He's got quite a long time to get better. We love the thought of his getting better - not the fact that he's young and smooth.

We should also clarify 'better'. There's a danger that 'better' could be interpreted as meaning more shots and gaining the ability to score in ways he can't at present. That's only partly true.

Every new run-scoring shot also carries with it a new way of getting out. Alastair Cook should always remember that all it's about is the number of runs he scores.

Fortunately, Alastair Cook's current game seems designed with this in mind. That this appears to be his driving philosophy is his greatest strength and presumably whatever he learns over the next ten or 12 years will be defined by this guiding principle. As long as he does that, he'll be more than all right.

Day one of England v West Indies at Lord's:
England: 200-3 (Alastair Cook 102 not out)

Indulgent straw-clutching about Rob Key

Rob Key may have only hit 63, but it was still the top score in the England A v Sri Lanka match. It's a shame that he couldn't have reached a century because people only really pay attention to batsmen when they get to three figures.

Last year Alastair Cook hit an eye-catching double hundred against Australia in a three-day game. That was in a match when three other batsmen hit sizable hundreds though. This match against Sri Lanka was a low-scoring affair and Rob Key's contribution was invaluable.

Who are we kidding? 214 is a lot more runs than 63.

We're part serious. We don't know if you all appreciate that our Rob Key fixation is based on more than just his appearance. He really is a top drawer batsman. We're really looking forward to seeing him in an England cap again.

Rob Key posts:
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