Another former Academy player, Alastair represented the county at all age levels and made his first-class debut in 2003. He captained England in the Under-19 World Cup early in 2004 and scored his maiden first-class hundred later that year. After capturing the headlines with a double-century for Essex against the Australian tourists in 2005, he completed a meteoric rise to international status after only two full seasons of county cricket making his England Test debut in March 2006 and he has been a fixture in the side since.

Alastair captained England in their two Tests in Bangladesh in 2010 guiding his side to victories. His highly impressive career record includes batting for over 35 hours and aggregating 766 runs, which included three centuries, to be named as man-of-the-series in England’s successful tour of Australia during the winter of 2010/11. Those runs saw him past 5,000 Test runs to become, at the age of 26, the second youngest batsman to reach that landmark after Sachin Tendulkar. In May 2011, Alastair was named as England one-day captain the succession to Andrew Strauss and he is also earmarked as a future leader of the England Test side.

His opportunities for Essex have understandably been restricted but when available, he has produced series of significant performances that have seen him score centuries in all three forms of the domestic game including a 57 ball unbeaten century in T20 cricket.

Alastair was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours.