I’ve developed a thick skin – Cook

Stephen Cook has had bigger innings under more pressure than he did at St George’s Park on Wednesday but there may not be a knock more significant in the context of his career. After a century in Adelaide in South Africa’s previous Test and a fifty in the first innings, Cook wanted to show consistency, especially as an answer to the questions over who will face the chop when AB de Villiers returns.

“Shutting out the noise is the challenge of a cricketer, whether it’s the noise on the field from the opposition or what’s being said off it,” Cook said. “It takes a bit of a thick skin and I’ve developed that. I’ve been in a lot of different change-rooms and pretty hostile environments. I always say that if you make it out of your own dressing room, you can make it in the middle.”

Cook’s domestic change-room included Neil McKenzie, his current batting coach. Both have former cricketers as fathers and both come from what Cook calls “the school of tough love”. One example of a lesson Jimmy Cook passed down to Stephen is: you can get out for any reason except being tired. So, between his dad and McKenzie, Cook has had a double …

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