SLOW and steady wins the race – at least it does if you’re Alastair Cook.

Earlier this month Cook made history by becoming the youngest man in Test history to score 10,000 runs, as well as being the first Englishman to reach the milestone.

While cricket fans around the world were aware of the impending landmark, here’s one they probably weren’t so familiar with.

At the time that he reached five figures – against Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street - Cook had struck just ten sixes in his entire Test career, one that had spanned ten years and 128 matches.

Reaching the magical 10,000 mark must have loosened the England captain up because in his next match, at the home of cricket no less, Cook cleared the boundary rope for the first time since December 2012.

Here’s a look at the most intriguing statistics when it comes to great batsmen, including Cook, hitting sixes in Test cricket.

WHERE COOK SITS IN THE 10,000 CLUB

In a word, last.

His 11 career sixes are by far the fewest hit by anyone who has scored 10,000 Test runs, with his nearest competitor being Australian legend Steve Waugh on 20.

India’s Rahul Dravid is also theoretically within reach on 21 sixes but it would take a monumental shift of mindset for Cook to chase either of those men down.

He can’t even dream of reaching the 97 sixes struck by South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis in his illustrious Test career.

Batsmen with at least 10,000 Test runs – most sixes hit

Jacques Kallis (South Africa) - 97

Brian Lara (West Indies) - 88

Ricky Ponting (Australia) – 74

Sachin Tendulkar (India) - 69

Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka) - 61

Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka) - 51

Shivnarine Chanderpaul (West Indies) - 36

Allan Border (Australia) - 28

Sunil Gavaskar (India) - 26

Rahul Dravid (India) – 21

Steve Waugh (Australia) - 20

Alastair Cook (England) - 11

MORE SIXES THAN BRADMAN

Cook is known for his dour batting methods but the record books will show he struck more sixes than the greatest batsman to ever grace a cricket field.

Sir Donald Bradman finished his career with just six sixes to his name, despite scoring 6996 runs from 52 Tests at an average of 99.94.

Bradman is famous for notching a multitude of double and triple hundreds – ten doubles and two triples, for those of you who were wondering – and was the first batsmen to score 300 runs in a single day of Test cricket.

Yet he managed to accumulate his runs almost exclusively without clearing the boundary, doing so on just six occasions – five times against England, and once against India. He made up for this by hitting an incredible 618 fours, averaging almost eight fours per innings.

That’s not to say The Don was entirely afraid of hitting the ball in the air. Of the 28067 runs he scored in first-class cricket, 270 of them were scored via sixes.

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS

Cook tends to hit his sixes in clusters, so don’t be surprised if we see him clear the boundary for a 12th time during next month’s Test series against Pakistan.

It took the left-hander almost two years to strike his first maximum in March 2008, and he waited another two years after that before doing so again.

That match, against Bangladesh in Chittagong, was one of just two matches in which he struck two sixes. The other occasion came during his career-defining 190 against India in Kolkata at the end of 2012. That year was a particularly profitable one for Cook, hitting five sixes.

Cook has only ever hit one six in an Ashes Test, at the WACA Ground in 2010, with Ryan Harris the unfortunate victim.

A MAN FROM A DIFFERENT TIME

Cook has often been thought of as a throwback to a bygone era, when English cricketers usually came from posh schools and opening batsmen valued their wicket over everything else – including runs.

The stats bear this out. Just last year he played the third-longest innings in Test history in terms of time spent at the crease, batting for a touch under 14 hours against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.

That knock was slow-going by anyone’s standards but a more telling statistic comes when you compare him to other great opening batsmen of the modern era.

Cook’s career strike rate of 46.37 runs per hundred balls compares unfavourably against the best openers from the 21st century, with the likes of Matthew Hayden (60.10), Virender Sehwag (83.10), David Warner (77.38) and Graeme Smith (59.85) streaks ahead of the England skipper.

Even Cook’s long-time opening partner Andrew Strauss (49.03) leaves him in the shade. Only Sri Lankan Marvin Atapattu (44.62) has a lower strike rate than Cook, although a few more blocks and leaves from the England captain could turn that around fairly quickly.

Things are even bleaker when you compare the number of sixes Cook has hit with the number of times his contemporaries have cleared the rope.

Hayden and recently-retired New Zealand legend Brendon McCullum hit as many sixes in one innings as Cook has in his entire career. McCullum did it twice in the space of one month.

Even the famously dour Bill Lawry (15) hit more sixes than Cook has, and in about half the number of Tests (67).

Most sixes hit by opening batsmen in 20th century

Chris Gayle (West Indies) – 94

Virender Sehwag (India) – 89

Matthew Hayden (Australia) – 81

David Warner (Australia) – 43

Marcus Trescothick (England) – 42

Herschelle Gibbs (South Africa) – 40

WHATEVER IT TAKES

Cook’s methods may not be to everyone’s taste but it’s impossible to argue against their effectiveness.

A batting average of 46.89 and the most Test runs ever scored by an Englishman are testament to his ability to grind down bowlers like few others can in the modern game, especially when many struggle to stop their Twenty20 inclinations from spilling over into long-form cricket.

In an age where bats are bigger than ever yet boundaries seem to get smaller, Cook is a reminder that sometimes the most effective way to score runs remains accumulation rather than destruction.

Former England wicketkeeper Godfrey Evans recalled Bradman telling him that, “I always try and hit every ball along the ground.”

If it worked for The Don, you’ve got to wonder why Cook is one of so few batsmen who try to copy him.

Thanks go to David Wells at The Bradman Foundation for his assistance.