James Anderson - Home track bully or legend in his own right
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The year was in 2003 and Zimbabwe came to England for a two-match Test series. Yes, it was that time of the century when big teams used to play Zimbabwe in full Test series and England, led by Nasser Hussain, was firmly in the charge of the game after scoring a mammoth 472 runs in the first innings.
Amidst the civil unrest and riot in St John's Wood, the officials of the England & Wales Cricket Board had a sleepless night and the frenzy also affected the Test match at the home of cricket - Lord’s. The roar got louder outside the stadium, but Mark Butcher rose above that to produce a fine century to lead England to a huge total and now the responsibility was on the broad shoulders of Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison to do the rest.
But, Hussain threw in a surprise and instead of Harmison, he sent a debutant from Burnley to open the bowling with Hoggard and at the end of the first innings, England had already had their next-gen superstar. The man answered to the name of James Anderson and he is a legend. Some say he is one of the finest bowlers of all-time, some say he is a home track bully. Some say he is way too ineffective outside England to be considered as a great fast bowler, some say he is one of the finest exponents of swing bowling. You can hate him, can love him, but certainly cannot ignore him. As per impact and numbers, James Anderson has done enough to be considered as one of the best players to have graced the game.
When Anderson became the first English bowler to take 500 Test wickets, and only the third seamer in world cricket to ever achieve the feat after Glenn McGrath and Courtney Walsh, he had left Ian Botham, England’s second highest wicket-taker in Test Cricket with 383 scalps, far behind and there was no comparison then. 540 wickets at 27.23, to go with a strike-rate of 56.20 in 138 matches is remarkable enough for his name not to be taken in the same breathe as some of the all-time greats. However, the numbers need to have some sort of context and need to be broken down to be put into perspective.
At home, Anderson’s numbers are extremely impressive as the conditions suit his style almost perfectly. He has made good use of the
Anderson is among one of the very few bowlers whose career has largely moved only in one direction, upwards, which is remarkable for a bowler, who for his first four years in international cricket was under the gigantic shadows of Hoggard, Harmison, Simon Jones, and Andrew Flintoff. But while Anderson was continuously making all the right noises, the period also saw the decline of Hoggard and Harmison and soon enough, Jones was out of contention due to the lack of form and Flintoff’s Test appearances were more or less here and there due to the regular influx of injuries.
While Anderson was horrible in the first few years, conceding 59.53 runs per wicket on away tours, the corresponding numbers from Mar ’08 till Jan ’14 shows how much he improved. The Lancashire boy picked up 115 wickets from 34 matches at an average of 33.09 and even rose above that to average 26.23 in 20 Test matches in the next four years. Remember that includes the tours to South Africa, India, the United Arab Emirates, and the Caribbean - probably only the latter can be considered as an easy trip.
However, more than the away performances, one thing that defines any English bowler is their performances in Ashes. Unfortunately for Anderson, his record in the Ashes is worse than his record in Asia and it doesn’t get better when you take out his numbers at home. But, the human mind, that is always infatuated with numbers, often makes the mistake of judging everything with the rose-tinted glass, which is dangerous and at times simply not true. In the 2010/11 series Down Under, England won their first Ashes series win in Australia since 1985 and Anderson had a huge role to play in it. He although couldn’t manage to take a single five-wicket haul, he ended up with 24 wickets at an average of just over 26, which speaks of his achievement.
It would be wrong to add Anderson in the category of the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Richard Hadlee, Curtly Ambrose, Glenn McGrath, or Wasim Akram, but that doesn’t take away the fact that how big a superstar he has been for the Three Lions. And with India series approaching, Anderson will dust off the old whites yet again to have a go against the visitors, who he has tormented by claiming as many as 86 wickets in just 22 matches. Like he has always been - aggressive, ready to speak a word or
