James Anderson

2022 - 12 - 15

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Image courtesy of "The Cricket Monthly"

Swing when you're winning (The Cricket Monthly)

Anderson enjoyed his 40th birthday with a cuppa, a sit-down and ten wickets in three Tests against South Africa at home this year © Getty Images.

[list of bunnies](https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/8608.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=start;template=results;type=bowling;view=batsman_summary) speaks to his quality as a fast bowler. Anderson played the series with the threat of a ban hanging over him, but in the end the matter fizzled out. [14 wickets](https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/player/8608.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=start;season=2013%2F14;template=results;trophy=1;type=bowling;view=match) did little to change the course of England's 5-0 whitewash. The series is remembered for Anderson's stoush with Michael Clarke, when Anderson was threatened with a "broken f***** arm" during [the Brisbane Test](https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/592397.html). 600 on Anderson's list, while Anderson himself became the first fast bowler to the mark, Below, Tom Latham misjudges a leave to be clean bowled by Anderson and become his 650th wicket. Anderson's first 100 wickets took more than five years; his next 100 came in a little over two. And the milestones kept coming. He was the side's leading wicket-taker of the tournament, with ten wickets at 22.50. Ferrari sent a helicopter to pick him up so he could be at both events. He's the only bowler - and scarcely believably, a fast bowler - among the top eight players on that list (compatriot Stuart Broad brings up ninth place). He has an incredible 675 Test wickets, and more to come.

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Twenty years of Jimmy Anderson: from frosted tips to statistical marvel (The Guardian)

England's greatest fast bowler made his international debut in a one-day hammering – two decades on he is closing in on 1000 all-format wickets.

[the most Test wickets of anyone after the age of 30,](https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?agemin1=30;ageval1=age;class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=wickets;template=results;type=bowling) his tally of 429 at home in England is more than the entire careers of Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose, Ian Botham, Malcolm Marshall, Shaun Pollock, Dennis Lillee, Allan Donald and Bob Willis. Ottis Gibson, the former England bowling coach, once described Anderson as the artist and Stuart Broad as the scientist, but really, when it comes to bowling, Jimmy is both. He may as well have a whole database to himself but numbers can be cruel and kind. He might then haughtily unfurl his second decade in an England Test shirt and implore you to have another look. He is the old dog learning new tricks. The Nokia 7650, the first phone to have an in-built camera, went on sale in the UK just a few months earlier and the smoking ban in England is still five whole years from wafting into place. [Cricket](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/cricket) Council Test rankings, the old dog yapping at the young heels of Pat Cummins. He could point one of those skilful, Test‑match tilting fingers towards his stats in order to back up his point. In fact he is sick to the back molars of being asked about his age, how long he can keep going for, how he feels, what his exercise and vitamin regimen is. Michael Bevan is playing for Australia and Alec Stewart is behind the stumps. Anderson’s international career has spanned both the advent of TikTok and Twitter, seen off Concorde and Sars. Anderson – all willowy limbs, frosted tips and early noughties statement necklace – comes up against the gnarled brutality of Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting.

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