India vs England: James Anderson continues to lead the pace attack of England.© AFP
England’s experienced right-arm seamer James Anderson is just two more scalps away from 700 Test wickets as he prepares himself for the fifth Test of the ongoing five-match Test series against India. The fifth Test starts in Dharamsala on Thursday. Anderson has snapped a total of 698 wickets so far in 186 Tests at an average of 26.51 where he has conceded runs at an economy of 2.79 with 32 four-wicket hauls and 32 five-wicket hauls.
If he completes this landmark, he will become the first seamer to do so and third overall after legendary spinners Muttiah Murlidharan (800) and Shane Warne (708).
Before the fifth Test, Anderson opened up on his thoughts about Virat Kohli and the India vs England series.
“I guess English fans will be thankful he’s not playing because he’s such a quality player. But from our point of view you want to test yourself, you want to come up against the best and he’s been someone who I’ve found really challenging to bowl at over the years and it’s a shame he’s not been playing,” James Anderson said on Jio Cinema.
“You know that reverse swing can play a big part in India and he’s (Bumrah) a great exponent of it. That yorker we saw to Ollie Pope, he’s got that up his sleeve as well. It’s not a fluke that he’s got to number one in the world. He’s a world-class bowler and from our point of view we weren’t surprised that he put up a performance like that.”
At 41, Anderson continues to lead the England attack. “For me, Zaheer Khan was someone I used to watch a lot to try and learn from. How he used the reverse swing, how he covered the ball when he ran into bowl, that’s something I tried to sort of develop on the back of playing against him quite a few times here,” Anderson told JioCinema.
Zaheer, one of India’s finest seamers, played his last Test in 2014 when Anderson was at the top of his game. Among the current lot of Indian pacers, Anderson is most impressed by Jasprit Bumrah‘s ability, calling him a “great exponent” of reverse swing.
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