Younger than the Don, a little older than Tendulkar

When (if?) Sachin Tendulkar eventually retires, Alastair Cook, the choir boy who became a batsman, could be best placed to overtake his world-record tally of Test centuries. The possibility is not as outrageous as it sounds. England play more Tests each year than other countries do. Cook made his debut in 2006 and has 62 caps already. And, at 25 years and 348 days, he has age on his side, so form and fitness permitting, Cook will have plenty of opportunities. He has made outstanding use of his chances in Australia so far this summer, scoring 235 and 148 in the first two Ashes Tests. They were his 14th and 15th hundreds, making him the second youngest batsman - after Sachin Tendulkar, ahead of Don Bradman - to score so many.

Tendulkar isn't the youngest batsman to score a century - he's behind Mohammad Ashraful and Mushtaq Mohammad - but he's the youngest to score five Test hundreds, and ten, and every other multiple of five attained by a human being. Tendulkar's the only teenager to have had five Test centuries. He was 40 days younger than Bradman was when he reached his tenth. He is the only 24-year-old to score 15 tons and the only batsman to have 20 before his 27th birthday. And it's likely to stay that way, until another batsman begins in his teens and combines productivity with longevity like Tendulkar has.

Bradman, of course, needed only seven Tests to score five centuries, but he is not unmatched in that feat - George Headley and Everton Weekes did it too. Bradman and Headley were 21 years old, Weekes 23. All of them are in our table of youngest batsmen to score five Test centuries. Headley finished his Test career on 10 tons, Weekes with 15. Both of them don't appear in the tables of youngest batsmen to score 10 and 15 centuries though, but Bradman does. He made his 10th Test century in his 16th match when he was 23, and his 15th ton in his 28th Test five days before his 26th birthday.

Cook was sixth youngest to score 10 Test centuries, getting his 10th five days after his 25th birthday, but his five hundreds in 2010 have made him second youngest to 15. He has the opportunity to add more in the Perth Test next week, which ends before he turns 26 on Christmas Day. Cook's unlikely to surpass Tendulkar as the youngest batsman with 20 Test hundreds, though, because he has about six months to score five more hundreds and England don't have any Tests between the Ashes and their home summer in 2011. But it could happen.

Unless he suffers a slump in form, Cook is likely to reach 20 Test hundreds at a younger age than Graeme Smith, Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis did. Smith got there just before he turned 29, Ponting and Kallis after they were 29, so Cook has about three years to score five centuries.

The youngest bowler to take five, ten, 15 and 20 five-wicket hauls played his first Test in Karachi, 1989, the same match in which Tendulkar made his debut. How's that for a freakish coincidence. Waqar Younis had five five-fors in 10 Tests soon after his 19th birthday, beating Kapil Dev, who had reached the mark a week before he turned 21. Waqar took his tenth haul in his 19th Test, when he was 20 years old, and was the only 22-year-old with 15 five-fors. He was slow in collecting them after that and took his 20th only when he was 26 years and 114 days old, still ahead of Ian Botham, who was 26 years and 280 days.

Tendulkar is also the youngest player to play 50 Tests (at 23), 100 Tests (29) and 150 Tests (35). This is no surprise. Some of the names below him are, though. For instance, Ramnaresh Sarwan played his 50th Test when he was 24 years and 59 days old, second to only Tendulkar. Sarwan made his debut at the age of 20 and his arrival coincided with a period of prolific Test activity for West Indies. He played seven matches in 2000, followed by 10, 12, 9 and 12 in the next four years.

Mark Boucher's the second youngest to play 100 Tests. He played his 100th when he was 30 years and 43 days old. Kallis was about 142 days older when he picked up his 100th Test cap.

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