James Anderson - The Menace of England

James Anderson has proved himself as one of the most fabled and elegant bowlers of all time. His abilities have been particularly apparent in the Test cricket where his artistry to swing the bowl has been admirable. He is too timid off the field except with his close mates. But that isn’t the case on the field as he has seized this diffident character on the field with his verbal aggression at times. He has been an integral part of three victorious Ashes campaigns. However, achieving some of the exceptional records didn’t come too easily as he has gone through innumerable injuries including a stress fracture of his back in 2005, which kept him out of the action for almost 1 and a half years. This affected his rhythm and pace considerably. Coming back from then wasn’t going to be easy at all.

Anderson had played only 3 matches for Lancashire before he was hurried into England’s one day squad in 2002-2003 in Australia as a cover for Andy Caddick. He didn’t have a number or a name on his shirt, but a remarkable spell of swing bowling, costing just 12 runs, forced the English selectors to include his name in the 2003 World Cup squad. In the World Cup, he produced a match winning spell against Pakistan because of which he had started entering limelight.

James Anderson is magnificently known for his threatening swing bowling. Apart from being called “Jimmy”, now, he is also considered and called as “The King of Swing”. You never know till what extent this guy can swing the ball. It seems like he has mastered and cracked every single aspect of swing bowling. One of his best deliveries came in the match against West Indies when he dismissed Kraigg Braithwaite with a completely unplayable delivery. Have a look at it! :

Anderson took 37 wickets in 7 test matches against Sri Lanka and India in 2014 but his reputation was demented by a verbal confrontation in the first test at Trent Bridge with Ravindra Jadeja and was accused by India for pushing Ravindra Jadeja near the corridors of the dressing room. However, both the players ended up escaping from the heavy charges by ICC. In the same match, he scored 81 runs in the first innings and shared a test record of 198 runs partnership with Joe Root for the tenth wicket.

In 2015, James Anderson became the first England bowler to reach 400 test wickets. This is the best milestone of his career for sure. He can further go on and register another ton of wickets too, if he remains fit. Eager to watch his 400th wicket? Here it is:

Also, in September 2015 he went on to register 700 First-Class wickets which proved out to be another grand and marvellous milestone. 

In his autobiography “Jimmy – My Story”, which is one of the top selling books, he has moreover described his shy character and two sides of his life, the first one - Jimmy, the nasty and snarling fast bowler, and the second one- James, the loving, devoted family man.

Nothing is enough to describe him as a whole. This man is already a legend, but that’s not enough for him as he eyes to join the list of “the legend of legends”. We all are blessed to witness the era of James Anderson as cricket will never have another bloke like him.