A swing in the tale: Jimmy Anderson's 15-year journey to be Test cricket's top seamer

HUW TURBERVILL AT THE OVAL: The ability to swing the ball both ways at will, and to land it on a sixpence without even looking down the other end, marks him out as simply exceptional, as freakish as Muttiah Muralitharan almost

^{Jimmy Anderson has more Test wickets than any other seamer}

Graeme Fowler tells a good story about James Anderson.

“After three balls, I turned to Mike Watkinson, and said, ‘Who the hell is he?’ Mike said, ‘I know, he’s good, isn’t he? He's a young lad from Burnley, but we have a dilemma. He has a terrible twist in his action, but if we correct it, he might lose his zip.’

“The coaches tried to change him in 2005, he stopped taking wickets, and when he was left alone again, he has never looked back. Dennis Lillee eventually broke his back, but by then he was a superstar.”

Fortunately Anderson doesn’t have a broken back, although he has certainly never looked back since impressing Foxy Fowler in the Old Trafford nets.

His dismissal of Mohammed Shami for his 564th Test wicket this afternoon took him past Glenn McGrath to become Test cricket’s top wicket-taking seamer. It has been a stunning 15-year journey.

^{Anderson went past Glenn McGrath on Tuesday}

After impressing Rod Marsh at the new ECB academy in Adelaide, he burst on to the international stage in the VB Series in Australia and at the 2003 World Cup.

Captain Nasser Hussain also liked what he saw immediately, preferring Anderson to Andrew Caddick for the crucial 49th over of the close defeat to Australia.

Hussain then unleashed him on the Test stage at Lord’s against Zimbabwe that summer, when he took a five-for on debut (his unlikely partner in crime with the ball that day was Mark Butcher, who took four).

SAM MORSHEAD: Stay now, summer. Don’t go. Don’t leave us.

Since then it has been Stuart Broad for the most part. Their alliance has sped past England’s other great deadly duos, Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff (222/219), Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough (234/229), Fred Trueman and Brian Statham (307/252) and Ian Botham and Bob Willis (383/325).

That Ashes summer of 2005 was the real low, when Duncan Fletcher and Troy Cooley were not totally taken with him (to be fair Flintoff, Harmison, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard did not do badly).

But then it has been harvest after harvest, especially in the helpful conditions of Albion.

^{The bowler has 564 Test wickets}

He had New Zealand on toast in 2008, Pakistan and India in 2010 ditto, tormented Virat Kohli in 2014, destroyed Sri Lanka in 2016, and trawled 39 South African and West Indian wickets last summer.

There have been excellent expeditions too, though. His 24 at 26 in the 2010/11 Ashes was a triumph, although it coincided with his grumpy phase (he insisted on calling Mike Hussey ‘Dave’ throughout).

There was not any need. The ability to swing the ball both ways at will, and to land it on a sixpence without even looking down the other end, marks him out as simply exceptional, as freakish as Muttiah Muralitharan almost.

Unlike his great pal Cook, his Test quest is set to continue, possibly until next summer’s Ashes, when he will be 37.
Then he can retire to his beloved Burnley, where he has already been given the freedom of the town.

And tonight he can open a bottle of James Anderson Reserve Rose 54 with Cook and reflect on two truly great careers.