Anderson on ‘Mount 700’: Test’s pace pioneer, marathoner | Cricket

Well, that’s what it has taken for James Anderson, who will turn 42 in July, to get there. And given he’s the only fast bowler to reach the colossal mark — a consequence of skill, sweat and stamina — there’s no other personality in this game who can really throw light on the key to getting there.

The magical milestone – one that only spin wizards Muttiah Muralitharan (800) and Shane Warne (708) had conquered previously – was achieved at 9.43am on Saturday as Kuldeep Yadav edged to Ben Foakes to go down in the record books as Anderson’s 700th victim, on Day 3 of the fifth Test.

Of course, Anderson has made batters of far higher calibre look inept against his swing and impeccable command of line and length, but the delivery – he seemed to roll his fingers across the ball to take the pace off ever so slightly and make it slant across – was a small yet fitting example of the nuances that go into Anderson being the bowler he is.

But ‘Mount 700’ is not about any one wicket as much as it is about the longevity and years of toil that have allowed Anderson to still be going in a format that challenges your endurance more than any other. For context on just how long Anderson has been playing Test cricket, Kuldeep was an eight-year-old in Kanpur still a few years away from taking up spin when the Englishman made his debut against Zimbabwe as a 20-year-old in May 2003. Shoaib Bashir, who led England off the field alongside Anderson on Saturday, wasn’t yet born!

Anderson’s first Test in India was way back in 2006. It’s an ode to his incredible will and desire that he has returned to India, among the toughest places to tour particularly as an overseas fast bowler, for five more trips spanning 18 years. In his formative years, Anderson was very much pigeon-holed as an out-and-out swing bowler with limitations on flatter pitches away from England. The numbers may still show a stark preference for bowling in favourable English conditions – 434 of his wickets have come in 105 home Tests at a strike rate of 52.4 while the corresponding figures outside England read 266 scalps in 82 Tests at 64.3.

It’s fair to also say that more lethal overseas pacers have stepped on Indian shores even though Anderson has the most wickets for a non-Indian quick here – 44 wickets in 17 Tests. Courtney Walsh’s 43 wickets in India, for instance, took only seven Tests and came at a strike rate of 38.7, far better than Anderson’s 66.2. Dale Steyn, the other pre-eminent fast bowler of the past two decades, took 26 wickets in six Tests in India at 37.1.

But as Anderson evolved and grew into the leader of England’s attack, he added other facets to his armoury to certainly be more effective without the help of conventional swing. Reverse swing, not a skill natural to pacers bred on the green surfaces in England, came along the way, serving him well on the triumphant 2010/11 tour of Australia and on visits to India in 2012 and 2021. To maintain his relevance even when the ball stops swinging, he also added the wobble-seam release to his repertoire a few years into his career. While Anderson’s seam position is perfectly canted towards first slip for the outswinger to the right-hander and leg slip for the inswinger, this is a delivery that helps to derive movement off the pitch when there’s no assistance in the air.

Another aspect deserving of unending praise is his fitness. That he was never a tearaway quick may have contributed to Anderson not suffering breakdowns, as has been the fact that he has stayed away from limited-overs cricket and focused only on one format since 2015. But it still takes immense devotion and care to keep putting in those extra hours at the gym at an age when almost all cricketers are well into retirement. As England skipper Ben Stokes said on the eve of the Dharamsala Test, Anderson is still among the fittest members in the squad, evident in the way he throws himself around on the field.

“700 wickets is phenomenal as a seam bowler,” Stokes had said on Wednesday. “He has had an amazing career up to date and I just can’t see him stopping. I’ve played with Jimmy for a long, long time and I have never seen him look as physically fit as he does right now. Being 41 and still showing the hunger to get better every day is testament to his commitment.”

Never mind the brilliance and defiance that have defined Anderson’s illustrious career, he will have to stop at some stage. Till then, instead of harping on how many more matches and wickets he has left in him, let’s just savour the skills of the rarest of rare bowlers.