Alistair cook

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I said myself in a couple of articles beneath that he's still got a bit of a way way to be in the company of Barrington, Compton and probably even the great Wally Hammond.

Even further still to join IMO the two greatest openers of all time in Hobbs and Hutton.

Cook's game has come on leaps and bounds in recent years and it's been great to watch him develop into a world class batsman. However, he still has a lot of cricket to play yet and a fair bit of good batting it will take before he dined at the top table.

For now, he's certainly going the right way about it. As is Pietersen if he keeps his head down.

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I think that's the best summing up I've read of exactly where Cook is. He's a wonderful player and will continue to break records but he has a lot of cricket ahead of him yet to be in the company of those mentioned above. It's easy to being seen as a great player in an era lacking great players.

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And Steyn. Amla like Cook has a long time ahead of him yet to be mentioned with the above. Steyn likewise but he would compliment the Westindies team of the 70's and 80's and that says it all. SRT along with Dravid who I think is far more respected in England than SRT, Ponting and Kallis are greats.

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I guess it's a different way of looking at it Neon. Please don't get me wrong , SRT will be a player I will always consider myself lucky to have seen bat, and I think a better player than Dravid. However reason I say what i o is Dravid's attitude. He just stood there facing whatever was thrown at him , never made a fuss, never made an excuse, and was still standing there at the end of the day, that's an attitude to be respected. And he was a horribly nice guy to go with it.

Yep, give it at least another few years of consistently good batting from Cook before we can begin to even think about mentioning him amongst the aforementioned greats. He's playing extremely well out in India but some are forgetting he had a pretty average time of it in the past 12 months.

To be considered amongst whom I'd consider the best openers of all time he'll need to up his game still yet, quite a bit.

Looking at the quality of bowling around world cricket since McGrath and Warne left the scene then an average tipping 50 would be more than expected for a top class batsman. So he's going well but I still expect more.

If Hobbs or Hutton were playing today against the standard of attacks around I personally reckon the pair of them would be averaging 60+ no problems.

Matthew Hayden played 103 test matches, scored 8600rruns, & got 30 test centuries. Very very good........... Never faced Warne or Mcgrath.

Quite a good player young Alistair. However, as a batsman he is still no where near fit to strap up Jack Hobbs' or Wally hammond's pads and in terms of captaincy he is George formby to Douglas Jardine's Lucianno pavarotti.

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Not wanting to be negative but what a load of cobblers! Cook has proven himself to be a top notch opening bat. He may not have achieved legend status yet but to suggest he is that far away from Hobbs/Hammond is ludicrous.

Captaincy: compare this team with the shower who played Pakistan/Sri Lanka earlier this year and notice the marked difference. Again, not entirely the captain's responsibility but he must have some influence.

Before the tour, it was all "but wait until he plays in India". What ever he does, there will always be someone who will be saying "it doesn't count".