James Anderson was the only seamer to cross the 700 international wickets from England, and this seamer took the help of Zaheer Khan, the legendary left-arm pacer from India. Anderson recently retired from international cricket on July 12th, 2024 during the test series against West Indies at the Lord’s Stadium.
The English seamer has taken a total of 704 international test wickets for England and 991 in total including the T20 and ODI format. He was able to achieve the feat of a five-wicket haul 34 times in international cricket across all formats.
Zaheer Khan, the Archies Angel for James Anderson
James Anderson was a talented seamer who had the ability to swing the ball in both directions with the new and old ball. His seam position was his key factor in defining the crazy inches of swing for a batsman to play on a medium pacer.
Although, playing for the nation and taking international wickets is already a big feat to achieve and the destiny of many aspiring cricketers, Anderson had a zeal for achieving the best and more for his nation. If we talk about the stats of Jimmy, he had an average start in the Test format with a satisfactory performance for the team.
Jimmy had a shabby start in his 20s in the test format, he almost averaged almost 40 with an economy rate of 3.7. Till the time he turned 24, he got the opportunity to play 18 tests and took 54 wickets which is quite impressive too, and achieved the five-wicket haul thrice with an average of 37 approximately.
Jimmy’s career took a turn when he learned a few techniques from the great Indian left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan. Zaheer was approximately highly skilled in 6 variations, he mastered the art of swing in the Asian continent where there’s usually no helping factor as overcast conditions for a seamer to get an advantage.
Being from a thought climate and still delivering the result, caught the eye of Jimmy and he added a few variations to his bucket with the help of assistance from Zaheer Khan in conveying the techniques to support the variations.
After 30 years old, Jimmy achieved an average of 30, and post 35 he was worthy enough to get an impressive average of 21 approximately with 700 international wickets in his hand. He went on to play till 41 years old and was still fit amongst the other younger players in the team, but he had to face a forced retirement to provide the chances to the younger generations and make a stronger constant side before the real action in WTC.
If we have a look at the charts, the Pacers are usually not the ones who can last this much in their career and Jimmy did not only just last, he was even getting better with his age and improving stats after every match.
The question arises- why James Anderson was able to achieve this feat when Zaheer Khan himself played 91 Test matches?
The answer to this question is, that Zaheer Khan was a bowler from the Asian continent where he got to play most matches at home and in Asia where the pitch was slow and dry, with a higher friction present on the ground.
Zaheer Khan took 311 international test wickets for India in 91 matches. Due to injuries, his career was also not as big as compared of Jimmy who played till 41 in England. If we talk about the climate in England, Jimmy gets an added advantage to playing Tests in his home country.
England has a cooler climate as compared to Asian countries where the overcasting conditions of the English climate help the seamers to get an added advantage for the movement of the ball, where Zaheer Khan showed the world how the proper use of seam positions, run-ups, and many other factors which help in improving the techniques of a seamer can destroy the opponents in any climate.
After learning the new techniques, Jimmy’s stats started to boom like no other seamer in the world. Have a look at the table mentioned below showing his stats before and after 35:
Host Country | Before 35 | After 35 | % Improved |
1 SL 40.72 21.57 47.0
2 WI 38.00 20.40 46.3
3 UAE 27.66 15.61 43.6
4 SA 38.72 30.00 22.5
5 ENG 27.53 21.42 22.2
6 NZ 35.37 31.66 10.5
7 AUS 35.79 32.69 8.7
8 IND 29.30 29.33 -0.0
Without a doubt, James Anderson was one of the best talents that England has ever produced in the history of cricket and he delivered the best from his end to set probably an undefeatable record of most international wickets in the Test format by a seamer, that is 704.
ALSO READ: 5 England Bowlers With Most Wickets In ODIs
