by You could find a fun little fact wherever you looked. On commentary as Jimmy Anderson celebrated his milestone was his old friend Graeme Swann, who began his Test career five years after retiring ten years ago; Meanwhile, the off-spinner became one of England’s greatest bowlers.
Alastair Cook, who made his debut in Essex after Anderson’s first World Cup campaign, paid tribute to him in the TNT studio. “What he has done is a joke,” said the former England captain. Sitting next to Cook was Steven Finn, who himself had an impressive fast-bowling career, taking 125 Test wickets before the knee came up. Anderson took 156 before Finn’s debut and has 237 since the last. Fionn was surprised by the achievement because he knows how difficult this thing is: the worn limbs, the physio on speed dial, the long grind that facilitates the eruption of a ship and the enormity of the uprooted stump. “In the foothills of the Himalayas, he has reached an insurmountable summit for a fast bowler in Test cricket,” announced Finn.
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And so you can understand why 600 Test wickets were once in the domain of spinners, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble who formed the triumvirate for 12 years before Anderson became the first seamer there in 2020. That would be what you thought at the time. to be the last, especially when he was thrown out two years ago for a tour of the Caribbean as part of a post-Ashes overhaul. Instead, Anderson went all Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort Wolf of Wall Street: “I’m not leaving.” Since his return he has taken 60 wickets at 25.91.
But in Dharamsala, against a screensaver-type backdrop and in his 187th Test match, the only number that mattered was 700, which was carried forward by a simple set-up. Kuldeep Yadav, who belies his No. 9 form, hit a sharp 85mph bouncer that bent his gloves. A fuller delivery followed, the seam running close to horizontal, inviting the front product, the line moving away, the edge inspired, the catch swallowed by Ben Foakes. History. And also what England needed early in the day after Kuldeep and Jasprit Bumrah had frustrated them the previous evening.
Shoaib Bashir, 20 years young, was stumped by Bumrah a few minutes later to celebrate the second five-wicket career which has accelerated in the last few weeks. But it still ensured that the seamer led England off the field, allowing Anderson to go over the rope first and take the wicket. Of course, Bashir wasn’t even alive when Anderson took his first Test wicket at Lord’s, an account of Zimbabwe’s Mark Vermeulen.
The romantic argument is that this is not entirely appropriate, that Anderson should not have won a home game, perhaps in his own end at Old Trafford. That argument would be flawed. After all the suffering is taken into account, there might even be a strange enjoyment at this point. Why else summon the spirit for another tour of India, where the headline tweakers have won and no visitors in a series since 2012?
Anderson has been watching batting collapse for years now and, for some strange reason, he releases himself from his seat in the dressing room, straps up his spikes and says: “Yes, I want more of this.” This was his 68th Test win, a career haul that surpasses Matthew Hoggard’s total number of Test appearances. His status as Number 11 means he is the man in charge, forced to be the first to shake hands and say thank you. This time he was, at least, unbeaten, watching from the other side as Joe Root ripped Kuldeep forward. This can’t be fun, right?
His series was uneventful, losing at Hyderabad before becoming Vizag’s lone wicket-taker with five wickets to spare. Yashasvi Jaiswal took him back to the white ball days, getting rid of him for three consecutive sixes at Rajkot. He was under-bowled in Dharamsala, he wasn’t used enough as a defensive weapon to tighten things up, he was over-protected because, well, he can’t do everything he did a few years ago. Ollie Robinson would suit England in a more prominent role and underlines why he should be leading this attack going forward. Instead, the body of the 41-year-old still depends more than the 30-year-old body.
Trying to figure out when it will all end is still a tiresome and futile exercise, so we might as well have a little fun assuming it won’t. The gaps have gotten longer between Anderson’s milestones: 400-500 wickets took two years, the next three, the one after close to four. So 800 at age 46? Sounds like a lot of suffering.
