James Anderson goes past Courtney Walsh, becomes 5th highest wicket-taker in Tests

James Anderson became the fifth-highest wicket-taker in Tests during the Boxing Day Test of The Ashes 2017-18. Anderson had earlier equalled Courtney Walsh, taking his 519th wicket as he dismissed David Warner. He then bagged the wicket of Tim Paine that took him past Walsh. Anderson, with 520* wickets now, is just behind Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708), Anil Kumble (619) and Glenn McGrath (563) in the list.

In the first session of the opening day, Anderson bagged only one wicket. Anderson came round the wicket and darted it away from Warner who edged it to the wicketkeeper and departed for 103. Although he went wicketless in the remaining sessions of Day One, he achieved the feat in the morning session of Day Two.

Player	Matches	Wickets	Average	Economy	Strike Rate	5-fors	10-fors
Muttiah Muralitharan	133	800	22.72	2.47	55	67	22
Shane Warne	145	708	25.41	2.65	57.4	37	10
Anil Kumble	132	619	29.65	2.69	65.9	35	8
Glenn McGrath	124	563	21.64	2.49	51.9	29	3
James Anderson	133*	520	27.36	2.92	56.15	23	3
Courtney Walsh	132	519	24.44	2.53	57.8	22	3

Anderson also became the eighth English bowler and 13th overall to take 100 wickets against Australia. He is following Ian Botham (128), Bob Willis (123), Wilfred Rhodes (109), Sydney Barnes (106), Alec Bedser (104), Bobby Peel (101) in the list of Englishmen.