While Shoaib Malik was reportedly put on a drip after his marathon innings of 245, Alastair Cook came off the field, strapped on a layer of foam padding, put on a thick pair of gloves and headed back out to open the batting in temperatures approaching 38C (100F).
Between the first ball of the Test and the close of play yesterday evening, the England captain had spent 19 and a half hours under the beating desert sun.
According to Raph Brandon, the ECB’s head of science and medicine, Cook’s ability to endure the conditions at least as well as Pakistanis raised in the 40C heat of the Punjab is largely psychological.
“The more you’re exposed to playing in the heat, the more your brain and body works out that you’re not going to die and that you can go out and perform OK,” Brandon explains. “Back in the dressing room it’s about lowering your body temperature as quickly as possible. We’re not putting them in freezer rooms for half an hour — just an ice bath for a few minutes and an ice towel on the back of the neck.”
Preparation for recent tours to Asia has involved running or cycling in a heat chamber with the thermostat turned up. This year, however, the ECB’s scientists felt that a post-Ashes rest would be more beneficial.
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Centrally contracted players have annual sessions with dermatologists to check for signs of skin cancer and players also have personal hydration plans for electrolytes and water intake based on tests that measure the rate at which they lose salts and minerals in their sweat. The theory that Cook has a mystical ability not to perspire is, of course, mythical; as one of the fittest players in the team, he is likely to have a more efficient cooling mechanism than most.
After 19 Tests in Asia, Cook’s average is more than 61. Barring calamity, he will finish the tour to the UAE with more Test runs in Asia than any batsman from a non-Asian country. To those who have seen him in training, this is not a huge surprise.
“He always gets good scores on the running tests and when he was in the academy at Loughborough, he always wanted to win the fitness tests and fitness challenges,” Brandon says. “The whole team are easily as fit as rugby players, but probably not quite as fit as a top-level footballers.”
Unlike endurance athletes, the England players are not given prescribed meals before and after play, but Cook is unlikely to have enjoyed a fry-up this morning. Instead, he will have reapplied his suncream, re-marked his guard and started all over again.
Asked half-joking last night about the prospect of spending another day in the sun trying to beat his highest Test score of 294, Cook replied: “I’d take 295.”