First player to score five hundreds in their first five Test matches as captain

Alastair Cook’s first five Test matches as captain of England saw the prolific left-hander register scores of 173, 109 not out, 176, 122 and 190. In the two-match Test series in Bangladesh in 2010, when Cook was awarded the captaincy in place of the rested Andrew Strauss, he hit 173 in the first innings of the 1st Test in Chittagong on 12–13 March and 109 not out in the second innings of the 2nd Test in Dhaka on 24 March as England won the series 2–0. In the Test series in India in 2012, following the retirement of Strauss and after the tourists had been forced to follow-on in the 1st Test in Ahmedabad, Cook scored 176 on 17–19 November as England fought unsuccessfully to save the match. On 24–25 November, during the 2nd Test in Mumbai, Cook struck 122 as England levelled the series, and in the 3rd Test in Kolkata on 6–7 December 2012, the opening batsman hit 190 in England’s first innings to become the youngest player to score 7,000 Test runs (at 27 years 347 days old) and England’s leading century-maker, with 23 hundreds. As of 19 November 2012, the day Cook completed his innings of 176 against India in the 1st Test in Ahmedabad, India, to set the record of three hundreds in the first three matches as Test captain, his overall Test match batting average was 48.71. As of 25 November 2012, the day Cook completed his innings of 122 against India in the 2nd Test in Mumbai, India, to extend the record to four hundreds from the first four matches as Test captain, his overall Test match batting average was 49.37. On 7 December 2012, the day Cook completed his innings in the 3rd Test to further extend the record, his Test match batting average was 50.36. Cook’s 176 against India - his 21st Test hundred in 84 matches - was the highest score by an England captain in India and the longest innings by an England batsman after being forced to follow-on. As of 6 December, he had 23 Test hundreds in 86 matches. His 3rd Test hundred on 6 December, which broke his own record for the highest score by an England captain in India, took him past Walter Hammond, Colin Cowdrey, Geoffrey Boycott and Kevin Pietersen as England’s leading century-maker. In the 3rd Test, Cook became the youngest player to score 7,000 Test runs. The previous record was held by Sachin Tendulkar (India) - who lined up against him in the 3rd Test - who scored 7,000 Test runs at the age of 28 years 193 days old. Also in the 3rd Test, Cook surpassed Andrew Strauss (7,037 Test runs), the man he succeeded as Test captain before the India tour, to move up to ninth in the list of England's all-time run-scorers. Graham Gooch is England’s all-time leading Test run-maker with 8,900. By the end of the four-match series in India, which England won 2-1 (their first series triumph in India since 1985), Cook had scored 562 runs in the series at an average of 80.28 runs per innings.