article_snippet.sent: long wait for a century before the man who seems destined to succeed Alastair Cook as England captain showed how to do it.
article_snippet.sent: There was agony for Alastair Cook on the third day of the second Test as England captain again fell short of the magic three figures despite looking as solid and unflustered at the crease as at any time in the two years since England captain last century.
article_snippet.sent: But the problems Alastair Cook had in finding fluency in Alastair Cook 211-ball 76 were put into stark perspective by yet another display of the rare class and maturity that has made Joe Root England’s outstanding batsman.
article_snippet.sent: Alastair Cook has gone 34 innings and 697 days without a Test ton.
article_snippet.sent: You go through blips in your career and the key now for Alastair Cook is to score as many as I can while I have this going for Alastair Cook.
article_snippet.sent: While Root was the star of the day, this was hardly a failure for an England captain who has now made four scores of 70-plus in his last seven Test innings, but Alastair Cook would have given anything to have been able to add those extra, elusive 24 runs.
article_snippet.sent: The brutal reality is that only Mike Brearley among England captains and opening batsmen has gone longer without a hundred than Alastair Cook’s 34 innings and Alastair Cook had the advantage of being considered the best leader of them all.
article_snippet.sent: It is now 697 days since Alastair Cook made the last of Alastair Cook record 25 Test centuries, at Headingley against New Zealand way back in 2013 when everything seemed well with the world of England and their captain.