James Anderson bursted on to the scene as the best swing bowler 21 years ago. He retired from International Cricket on 12th July, with a huge England victory against West Indies in Lord’s Test. He led English attack alongside Stuart Broad over a decade until Broad’s retirement. Anderson continued to play for few more years but finally, even he decided to hang up his boots.
England continued to terrorize their opponents with swing off James Anderson and discplined line & length with pace by Broad. On their day, both could run through major batting line-ups giving English team a huge advantage. Even greats like Virat Kohli had trouble negotiating Anderson’s swing in English conditions.
While the third highest wickettaker ever with 704 wickets, made such great batters his bunny, he continued to improve his line & length over the years while he dropped pace. Still, the ball listened to his tune and made batters dance at the crease containing barrage of out-swingers, in-swingers from James Anderson.
He improved his arsenal over years to play better in Sub-continent and Australian conditions. While, he is the best ever pacer in swinging the ball, his tight line & lengths helped his co-bowlers to take wickets as well. James Anderson gave his best on field as a fielder and with ball even on the final day of his career.
He took 4 wickets in his final Test at Lord’s and passed on the baton to debutant Gus Atkinson who took 12 wickets in this one. Every English cricketer and fan cheered looking at his efforts. James Anderson entered the ground after both the teams gave him a guard of honor. In totality, we saw the end of an all-time great’s career playing at his best even at the age of 42 years.
