Cook’s most recent winter was the final step on the road to international cricket. Given he has been overlooked for so long, few would have blamed him had he given up and chased the dollars in short-form leagues.
Instead, he turned down “a few bits of franchise stuff” to play for England Lions in Australia, and was one of the standout performers in an otherwise disappointing tour. While the Lions failed to win any of their three matches, Cook claimed 13 wickets, a handy demonstration of his ability with the Kookaburra ball in an Ashes year.
“I made the right decision to go with the Lions and show what I could do in Australia,” he says. “It’s strengthened my cause for international cricket.”
At a time when England have altered their selection methods, Cook’s inclusion shows county performances can still provide a path to the Test team.
He perhaps should have been most aggrieved last summer, when the exceptionally green Josh Hull was given an opportunity after Mark Wood got injured. At the time, England director of cricket Rob Key explained the decision was down to styles of bowling, and Cook would have been in the frame had a replacement for Woakes been needed. Cook, therefore, had to wait a little longer.
“I just wanted to know what they wanted to see me doing,” says Cook. “It wasn’t a case of kicking up a fuss or moaning, I was just desperate to know how I could improve.
“It was never a case of ‘we don’t think you’re fast enough’. It was just trying to push the echelons of my pace as high as I could, honing skills, and a lot of it was just that the guys in front were better, which is true for bowlers like Jimmy and Broady.”
So Cook arrives in Test cricket battle-hardened, comfortable with his game and, in his opinion, “in a better place than if I was picked a year or two ago”.
At his best, he will provide England with control and accuracy. Holding length is one of his key skills. In the past five years, more than 77% of his deliveries in the Championship have been on a good length, comfortably the highest percentage of the top 10 seamers.
“It is not what the ball does but where it does it from that counts,” says Lewis, the former Australia seamer now on Yorkshire’s coaching staff. “He puts the ball in the right areas and asks questions enough times of batsmen.
“Batsmen get out in two ways: poor decision-making or bad shot selection. He puts enough balls in the areas to get one of those two options. He shifts the ball both ways but his ability to hold his length is pretty special.”
The last time Zimbabwe played a Test in England, 22 years ago, the series was famous for the debut of Anderson, the patron saint of English-style seamers like Cook.
Anderson marked his bow at Lord’s with a five-wicket haul. A choice was put to Cook – to claim a debut five-for of his own, or see Manchester United win the Europa League?
“It’s a no-brainer,” he says. “I’ll take the five-for. If we lose, I’ll be telling everyone the Europa League is an irrelevant trophy. Hopefully I can be greedy and can get both.”
