Cook's cup runs over with youthful zest and talent

And he is already picking up awards as well. He was voted Young Cricketer of the Year by the Cricket Writers' Club and followed that up with a ringing endorsement from his fellow professionals by lifting the Professional Cricketers' Association Young Player of the Year award a month later. And even his birthday is a little bit special, since it is on Christmas Day.

The Essex head coach Graham Gooch said yesterday: "He really is an impressive young man and has come a long way in a short space of time. If he gets a chance then he has to take it - even if he doesn't play a game then this is an opportunity to make his mark and to show the England hierarchy what he is capable of."

Statistics and figures are already bobbing about in the wake of this former pupil of Bedford School, where he first came to the notice of the cricket world.

In the 2003 season at Bedford he set a school record by scoring 1,287 runs at the remarkable average of 160.87, and that included two unbeaten double hundreds, one of them 206 not out against Gordonstoun.

Little wonder then that Essex decided to give him his Championship debut that same season, and the 18-year-old, as he then was, did not disappoint. He scored three half-centuries in the six innings and already the qualities that set a prodigious talent apart were in evidence.

Keith Fletcher has played a big part in Cook's development and, hardened old pro that he is, the former England batsman is not given to verbal largesse.

So when Fletcher says: "Alastair is one of the most exciting young players I have seen since the young Graham Gooch," you have to sit up and take notice.

But there is more. Fletcher has said of Cook: "His temperament and application are superb, and although he has a long way to go to match Gooch, I think he can make it."

The Gloucester-born Cook captained England in the 2003-04 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh and recorded successive scores of 108 not out (twice) and 87 in the tournament.

The left-handed opener's maiden first-class hundred was not long in coming either, against Leicestershire the season before last when he passed 500 runs in the Championship, albeit at a modest average of 29.

And he did enough that season to earn a call-up as a replacement for Kevin Pietersen on the England A tour to Sri Lanka, where he most certainly did not disgrace himself.

But it was from the very beginning of last season that he really came to the fore. Having been selected by MCC for the match against the Champion County at Lord's he opened with a magnificent 120 and followed that up with 97 in the second as Warwickshire were trounced.

He shared in a mammoth 181-run stand in the second innings of that invitation match with Essex colleague Andy Flower, and the Zimbabwe Test batsman has since remarked: "Alastair is one of the best players I have ever seen for scoring off his hips on the leg-side, even at his tender age."

But, if he is predominantly an on-side batsman, he can still play shots all around the wicket, as four Championship centuries last season bear witness.

And he put in a match-winning performance against Durham at Southend. It was one of only two defeats inflicted on the North Easterners on their way to promotion from the Second Division. In the first innings Cook scored 107 of Essex's modest 245 total, and he followed that with an important second-innings knock. And just for good measure Cook claimed his maiden first-class wicket - three of them, in fact - with his occasional off-spin.

If Cook is given the opportunity his record to date suggests that he will take it. And that he will make it.

A Cook's tale: career so far

Name Alastair Nathan Cook. Born 25 December 1984, in Gloucester.

County Essex. Previous county Bedfordshire.

Batting style Left-hand.

Bowling Right-arm slow.

Career highlights Captained England in the 2004 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh and scored two centuries while leading them to the semi-finals.

Voted Young Cricketer of the Year in 2005 by the Cricket Writers' Club.

Scored 214 against the Australians in a non-first-class tour match in 2005.

First-class (2003-2005) Matches 36. Inn 64. Runs 2,567. Ave 43.50. HS 196. Hundreds 6. Fifties 15.