England's Alastair Cook today (December 27) scored his 32nd Test century at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to enter an elite club of only two batsmen.
Cook, who was out of form and with questions being raised on his place in the team, answered with his bat on Wednesday as his hundred helped England fight back in the fourth Ashes Test.
The left-handed opener had low scores of 2, 7, 37, 16, 7 and 14 in the previous three Tests of the ongoing Ashes series. Australia won all to reclaim the urn.
The 33-year-old, playing in his 151st Test, has now silenced his critics. He brought up the three-figure mark in the final over of the second day. At stumps England were 192/2 in 57 overs in reply to the home team's 327.
With his 104 not out today, Cook has joined Indian great Sunil Gavaskar as the only two overseas batsmen to have scored a century at Australia's five main Test venues. Gavaskar's record had stood for 31 years, since 1986.
Cook has scored hundreds in Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. Gavaskar is the only other non Australian batsman to have compiled Test tons at these major grounds.
Cook's centuries at Australia's "Big Five" venues
116 - Perth (2006)
235 not out - Brisbane (2010)
148 - Adelaide (2010)
189 - Sydney (2011)
104 not out - Melbourne (2017)
Gavaskar's tons at Australia's "Big Five" grounds
127 - Perth (1977)
113 - Brisbane (1977)
118 - Melbourne (1977)
166 not out - Adelaide (1985)
172 - Sydney (1986)
Note: All statistics from espncricinfo
