Sam Cook burst onto the scene at the end of the 2017 season, taking 20 wickets in the final four games of the Club’s Championship success.

In the double winning season of 2019, Cook played a big role in Essex’s seam attack alongside Peter Siddle and Jamie Porter. He took 32 wickets at an average of 21.03 with 12 of them coming in Canterbury, taking 5-wicket hauls in both innings. During the second innings of this game, Cook would take career-best figures of 7/23 as Essex bowled Kent out for just 40, an innings that would not see a single Kent batter hit double-figures.

Cook’s brilliance has also been noticed by national selectors, receiving a call up to the England Lions squad for the first time in October 2021. His ability in the white-ball game was also commended by appearing for Trent Rockets in the inaugural Hundred competition.

When Sam Cook dismissed Tom Kohler-Cadmore for 5 in the first innings of the County Championship fixture against Yorkshire in 2022, he became the first English bowler to reach 200 first-class wickets while averaging under 20 in more than 50 years.