New Delhi: Veteran England pacer James Anderson, who is just two short of 700 wickets mark in Test cricket, has revealed that he used to follow former India speedster Zaheer Khan during his fledging days to learn a few elements of pace bowling, including reverse swing.
Anderson, who is on the seventh Test tour to India, is leading England’s bowling attack and is two short of becoming the first pacer in the history of the sport to breach the 700-wicket mark. Legendary Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and the late Shane Warne are the only bowlers with 700-plus wickets in Test cricket.
Speaking to JioCinema, Anderson asserted, "For me, Zaheer Khan was someone I used to watch a lot to try and learn from. How he used the reverse swing, how he covered the ball when he ran into the bowl, that's something I tried to sort of develop on the back of playing against him quite a few times here."
Zaheer, who has 311 Test wickets to his credit, is the pacer with joint second-most wickets for India. He announced his retirement when Anderson, who also plays for Lancashire, was at the peak of his career.
Among the current lot of Indian pacers, Anderson is most impressed by Jasprit Bumrah's ability, calling him a "great exponent" of reverse swing. Asked about Bumrah's match-winning performance in the second Test against England at Visakhapatnam, the 41-year-old said, "With someone of his quality you expect that standard from him. You know that reverse swing can play a big part in India and he's a great exponent of it. He's got good pace and is very accurate, very consistent."
"That yorker we saw to Ollie Pope, he's got that up his sleeve as well. It's not a fluke that he's got to number one in the world. He's a world-class bowler and from our point of view we weren't surprised that he put up a performance like that," added Anderson.
"There are not many better bowlers than Bumrah, (Mohammed) Shami and (Mohammed) Siraj. They're world-class bowlers. You put (pacer) Ishant Sharma in there as well, and that's a really strong bowling attack," added the right-arm pacer.
Anderson's longevity in the game can be ascertained by the fact that his current England teammates like Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed were not even born when he made his Test debut in 2002.
Having played 186 Tests and 194 ODIs over the last 22 years, Anderson's desire to be competitive remains intact. He has been working hard on his fitness and India’s southpaw opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s catch in the second innings of the fourth Test was a testament to it.
On comparing his longevity to other sporting legends, Anderson said, "Yeah, I guess you do look at things like that, but to be honest, I just go with the feel of me and my body. I don't feel like I'm 41 years and 200 days old. You know, I still feel young.”
"I can keep up with the young guys in training. I can still bowl at the speeds that I want to, I can still deliver the skills that I want to. So, for me, that's the most important thing. Age is just a number and it's pretty irrelevant from my thought process," he added.
Anderson feels that the art of bowling reverse swing remains relevant even in an age dominated by T20 cricket. "I don't think it's dying. Because of the growth of white-ball cricket in recent times, the focus has moved to change of pace and different deliveries like yorkers, and things like that," he said.
"But for me, in Test cricket, we've seen throughout this series already that swing can play a big part. The way Bumrah bowled, I think, has been amazing to watch. That reverse swing spell in the second Test was one of the best you'll see. For me, I think there's still people out there wanting to learn the skills and it's not easy to do," he commented.
Speaking about the absence of former India skipper Virat Kohli and their rivalry, Anderson said that he missed bowling to the Indian maestro with whom he had had some fascinating duels. "You always want to play against the best players. And it's been a shame that he's not been a part of the series. We have had some great battles over the years," he concluded.
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