Published: May 29, 2015, 06:10 PM (IST)
Edited: Jun 01, 2015, 11:21 AM (IST)
Despite their rich legacy of fast bowlers, James Anderson became the first England bowler to reach 400 Test wickets. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at Lancastrian who gets about with his business, unnoticed, day in and day out, and will almost certainly continue to do so for years to come. READ: James Anderson first English cricketer to take 400 Test wickets
Fast bowlers have arrived in plenty for England through the 2000s to take over from Darren Gough and Andy Caddick: Matthew Hoggard, with his nagging line and movement; Steve Harmison, whose hostility knew no bounds; Simon Jones, injury-prone yet unplayable on his day; Andrew Flintoff, who oscillated between the roles of stock and shock bowler; and Ryan Sidebottom, who disappeared from forefront as quickly as he rose. Some of them lasted. Others did not.
Then came the new era, that of Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, and Steven Finn. England even found their spinners in Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann. And connecting the two eras was that man from Lancashire, who went on and on, getting past Fred Trueman, Bob Willis, and Ian Botham, before finally reaching the 400-wicket mark.
But then, Anderson did not feature in Ashes 2005. He made fleeting appearances without having much of an impact. The average languished in the mid-30s. Anderson was approaching 30. Most fast bowlers are past their primes by 30. Anderson’s career was not supposed to take off.
But he is, you see, a Lancastrian. He refused to give up. Anderson roared back with an 11-wicket haul against Pakistan at Trent Bridge. The world should have taken notice, especially the Australians: he had, you see, taken 23 wickets against Pakistan at 13.73.
They did not; and suffered. Andrew Strauss’ men regained the Ashes on Australian soil. Anderson did not take a single five-for. And yet he finished as the highest wicket-taker from either side. They remembered 766. They forgot those 24 wickets.
But that was only the beginning. Broad stole the limelight with his hat-trick against India in 2011; Anderson claimed 21 wickets at 25.71. Swann and Panesar, combined with Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen, helped clinch the 2012-13 series in India; Anderson’s brilliance with the new and old ball were lauded, but he was far away from being the star.
When Trueman was the first bowler to reach 300 Test wickets it had seemed unassailable. When they asked the great Yorkshireman on whether his record will be broken, the response was curt: “Aye, but whoever does will be bloody tired.”
Then came Willis, and with Willis came Botham. The record stood at 383 for over two decades till Anderson went past him. Unlike Trueman or Botham, Anderson was never a character of the sport that attracted crowd of either species in various ways. He was not mercurial. He was a man of the ground.
Unlike Willis he never got to lead England. Then, again, like Willis, he spearheaded a bowling pack. In many ways he was more efficient than most, for he helped them reach the top spot in Test cricket, albeit temporarily.
Anderson was never your Curtly Ambrose or Allan Donald. He will not intimidate you. But he is one of the fittest (he is one of the best fielders of a side, at slip or elsewhere), and will keep coming back at you throughout the day.
He will bowl the same at eleven in the morning and six in the evening. The line and length will be impeccable; the pace will remain the same; the movement — both in air and off the pitch — will be clinically sufficient, no more, no less than what is required.
And then, once you thought you had seen him off, he would come back with the old ball and make life miserable for you with reverse-swing — a weapon he had perfected over the past three years.
In a way his bowling his career has been synonymous to his bowling: he was there, is there, and will be there, taking new ball, going on and on and on. The wickets tally will increase, unnoticed as ever, closer and closer to that elusive 500-mark…
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)
