- Mar 4, 2024
- Feb 28, 2023
England pacer James Anderson has been one of the legends of the modern era. It is safe to call him an “all-time legend”. Generally, pacers at the age of more than 35 bid adieu to the longest format of the game. However, at 39, Anderson still has the hunger to play the toughest format. The best part about him is that he made his debut way back in 2003.
At that time, cricketers such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid VVS Laxman, Stephen Fleming, Matthew Hayden, Brian Lara, Mohammad Yousuf, and many more were playing the game. Currently, the players from that era have retired from the game but the Lancashire player is still playing the red-ball game. Not to forget, he is the only pacer to play more than 170 Tests.
Besides, his teammate Stuart Broad has played the second-most number of Tests (154). Meanwhile, during the ongoing fourth day of the second Test between England and New Zealand, he completed a landmark of 650 wickets. In the first over of the second innings, stand-in Kiwi skipper Tom Latham misjudged the line of the ball and shouldered his arms. As a result, the ball went to crash the off and middle stump and the legend went past the landmark.
Most wickets in Test cricket:
Muralitharan – 800
Warne – 708
Anderson – 650*pic.twitter.com/UdGU0OdkSG— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) June 13, 2022
The 39-year-old has been the all-time third-highest wicket-taker in the last year or so. In August last year, he broke the record of former India Test skipper Anil Kumble. Kumble has 619 wickets to his name. During the Test series between India and England at that time, the right-arm pacer broke the record in the first game of the series.
From this series till the Ashes in Australia, he went to 620 to 640 wickets. Ahead of the ongoing series against the World Test Championship winners, he had the opportunity to get to the 650-wickets mark. Only players ahead of him are Late Shane Warne with 708 wickets and former Sri Lanka spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan with 800 wickets.