21 years, 188 Tests, 704 wickets, and playing with 109 teammates. These sky-high records belong to none other than England’s fast bowler James Anderson, who said goodbye to the cricket pitch with the victory over West Indies.
17 years ago, in May 2003, a young pacer joined the England team. That team had an army of strong bowlers like Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison. It was not easy to make a place for oneself among them, but Anderson made his intentions clear from his first match itself and in his debut match, he defeated the Zimbabwe team and took five wickets in the first innings of the match. Although James Anderson did not get any success in the second innings, but the world knew about the storm that was coming.
Anderson’s career had just started when fitness problems surrounded him, due to which Anderson could not be a part of England’s famous 2005 Ashes series. Now it seemed that perhaps this great player would never return, but the tiger was still alive and Anderson once again returned to New Zealand in 2007-2008 and during this tour he got the support of his favorite partner Stuart Broad. And there is no need to tell how destructive Stuart Broad and James Anderson were as a pair, but we will mention Stuart Broad some other time. Now coming back to Anderson, after that he showed such a brilliance of his swing that one after the other records started coming to him. James Anderson established himself like Angad and wrote every record in his name which he deserved. Many fast bowlers came and went in the England team but Anderson kept playing his role well from the other end, he kept fulfilling the responsibility given to him with full intensity.
In world cricket, James Anderson reminds us of Arjuna of Mahabharata. Just like Arjuna’s eyes were always on the target, Anderson’s eyes were always on swinging the ball. Simple action and average speed but the swing was such that even the pitch would feel ashamed.
James Anderson took 704 wickets in Test cricket.
It is not easy for a fast bowler to stay on the cricket pitch for 21 years. The dedication and perseverance with which Anderson has shaped himself is an example of many players in world cricket. There is no doubt that James Anderson’s departure will leave a void in the England team but this is what sports is all about.
Dale Steyn was always considered a greater bowler than James Anderson, but Steyn failed to maintain his fitness. Anderson, on the other hand, defeated age with his patience and skill. Even at the age of 41, Anderson still has the same passion that he had shown against Zimbabwe that day at Lord’s in 2003. James Anderson neither had the speed of Steyn nor the line length of McGrath, but still Anderson remained different from other bowlers. Swing was Anderson’s biggest weapon, with the help of which Anderson made countless victims. In true sense, James Anderson was the Sultan of Swing, before whom every warrior of the battlefield bows down.
Tags: England vs West Indies, james anderson, Test cricket
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 13, 2024, 18:46 IST