Alastair Cook is the most mentally strong player ever to represent England, says Nasser Hussain, as the skipper approaches 10,000 Test runs...
I don't think there is too much difference from the Alastair Cook with zero Test runs to the one closing in on 10,000.
His technique hasn't changed much, while on and off the field he is the same lad - there is no massive ego, he's just the quiet Essex boy who goes about his business.
But, for my mind, he is the most mentally strong cricketer England have ever produced.
His great mentor, Graham Gooch, was very good in that regard, as were Graham Thorpe, a man who loved heading out of the dressing room with the pressure on, and Michael Atherton - but Cook probably pips it.
He has had tough times in career but always responded, including against Pakistan in 2010 when he was almost in a last-chance-saloon situation ahead of The Ashes and scored a hundred.
He always challenges himself, never takes the easy road, and is determined to prove people wrong, which is one of his greatest strengths.
I have to say that when I first saw him he was this tall, gangly lad with a stiff leg and a heavy head who tended to fall over!
It was Keith Fletcher who turned to me and said: 'Watch out for this boy, he's going to be an exceptional talent', and when I saw him again on his first Test appearance in Nagpur I realised what Fletcher was going on about.
To fly out to India that week and get a hundred on debut showed what a good player of spin he was and how strong he was in the mind - I knew then just how special a talent England had and would have for years to come.
Nowhere was that more evident than in Australia during the 2010-11 Ashes.
Cook went out there under a bit of pressure having only scored one hundred, plus a 95, against Australia in 19 Test innings, but, boy, did he deliver - Brisbane, Adelaide, wherever he went, he smashed it.
I doubt he will ever play as well as that.
Alastair is one of the best players of a ball above waist high that I have seen in the game - he is exceptional at cutting, pulling and clipping off his hip.
Plus, his stubbornness means he is fully prepared take six hours to get a hundred, rather than the three that it might take someone like Ben Stokes.
Is he England's greatest Test batsman? That's all subjective - you've got Joe Root now and you've had Gooch, Kevin Pietersen and Geoffrey Boycott in the past.
What Cook is, though, is the best he could ever possibly be and that's what will give him the most pride - not being better than anyone else but being the best Alastair Cook.
He is a phenomenal player who has worked incredibly hard and he'll be around and breaking records for a long time yet.
See if Cook reaches 10,000 Test runs when England play Sri Lanka in the first Test at Headingley, from 10am, Thursday, Sky Sports 2.