Is Anderson One Of The Greats?

There has been much discussion online about the English fast bowler Jimmy Anderson and whether he is one of the game’s greats. At times those discussions have become emotional and heated. Which shows how sport has the ability to bring out a range of emotions in many people.

There can be no doubt that for Anderson to still be running in and bowling fast at the age of 38 is a credit to the man. Not just a credit to him keeping himself fit and able to continue to play at the highest level, but also a credit to his mental attitude. It is impressive that he still has the desire and the will to keep playing at that level and putting his body through the ringer to be able to perform consistently.

As for Jimmy Anderson the man. This writer has never met him. From watching him perform and having seen him interviewed he appears a very humble mild-mannered individual. Some would say that if there was one thing he lacked it would be that intimidatory personality that we come to expect from our fast bowlers. Yet there have been many like him who were successful without breathing fire, spitting insults and employing other histrionics. What is clearly a credit to Jimmy Anderson is despite many people having opinions on his performances you never hear anyone with a bad word to say about him as a person. So he has been a magnificent servant to the game, and to English cricket.

So how good has he been? Does the fact that he has managed to play on longer than many other fast bowlers automatically elevate him amongst the greats of the game? Does the fact that he has played on so long, and therefore taken so many wickets give him that right? Does he deserve the much talked about knighthood that was mentioned at the turn of the new year, simply for doing what he is paid to do, albeit it consistently?

Everyone will have an opinion on each of these questions and all are entitled to that opinion. What is guaranteed is that those opinions will differ.

So on what criteria do we judge our sporting greats? Is it fair to compare players from different generations? In some sports that may appear more unfair than in a sport like cricket. For cricket is a game built upon statistics, but then again what is it Mark Twain said about statistics? Lies, damn lies and statistics! Yes the modern day bats have changed the game in recent times. The wickets too are far more conducive to batsmen than to bowlers, and the boundaries have been shortened. So the goalposts have shifted. However it is still essentially a battle between bat and ball.

At the time of writing Jimmy Anderson has played 158 Test Matches; if he stays injury-free he should soon become England’s most capped player. He has taken 611 Test wickets, the most of any fast bowler in the history of the game at International level, and is fourth on the all-time test wicket-takers list. These wickets have been taken at an average of 26.49 (as of 16 Feb 2021). Which is a good average at Test match level for a fast bowler.

The best way to try and give some perspective to his performance is to compare it to others.

First we will look at his record in terms of wickets per Test Match. When looking at this as a barometer, Anderson does not make the top forty bowlers of all time. England’s Sydney Barnes who was rated as being a fast-medium paced bowler tops the list. Barnes played in 27 Test matches and took 189 wickets. He averaged seven wickets per Test Match. Interestingly he played his last first class cricket match at the age of 54 and declined to Tour Australia in 1920/21 when he was aged 47, because he could not afford for his family to travel with him!

For those who feel that this is going too far back in time, Muttiah Muralitharan, albeit a spin bowler, comes in fifth on the list with 6.02 wickets per match. Dennis Lillee and Sir Richard Hadlee, both opening bowlers come in at 18 and 20 averaging 5.07 and 5.01 wickets per Test match respectively. Shane Warne at 21 managed 4.88.

Of the current players Pakistan leg spinner Yasir Shah in his 45 Test Matches is averaging 5.22 per Test and Ravichandran Ashwin of India in his 76 Test matches is averaging 5.16. Of the quick bowlers Australia’s Pat Cummins averages 4.82 from his 34 Test Matches while Jasprit Bumrah of India from his 18 Test is averaging 4.61. Jimmy Anderson averages 3.86 per Test.

If we turn our attention to the lowest average based on wickets taken against runs conceded Anderson is outside the top 60 bowlers. If we look at only bowlers from the turn of the last century Australia’s Fred Spofforth and England’s Frank Tyson top the list of the fast bowlers with 18.41 and 18.57 respectively. Australian Alan Davidson is next followed by England’s Ken Higgs and then an impressive line up of West Indians, Malcolm Marshall(20.95), Joel Garner(20.98) and Curtley Ambrose.(20.99). One of England’s greatest fast bowlers Fred Trueman is on 21.58.

Once again Pat Cummins (21.60) and Jasprit Bumrah (21.88) are the highest of the current players, followed by South Africa’s Vernon Philander at 22.32. As mentioned Anderson averages 26.49.

If we now look at bowlers with the best strike rate in Test Cricket, again Anderson is outside the top 40. Of the quick bowlers New Zealand’s Shane Bond tops the list and is third overall with a wicket every 38. 76 balls. Dale Steyn of South Africa comes in sixth with a wicket every 42.39 balls and Pakistan’s Waqar Younis struck every 43.50 balls.

Once again from an English perspective Trueman is in the top echelon with a wicket every 49.44 balls and Frank Tyson is there too taking a wicket every 45.42 balls.

The top two in terms of strike rate amongst the players still playing are Kagiso Rabada of South Africa (41.74) and Pat Cummins of Australia (47.16). Jasprit Bumrah of India sits in third with a wicket every 48.66 balls.

Anderson’s strike rate currently sits at a wicket every 55.8 balls.

If we turn our attention now to bowlers with the most five wicket hauls in an innings of a Test Match Anderson is now in the top ten. Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne top the list with 67 and 37 respectively. Then comes New Zealand fast Bowler Sir Richard Hadlee with 36 five wicket hauls in an innings. Anderson is sixth with 30. He is followed by Ravichandran Ashwin and Glen McGrath both with 29, and Sir Ian Botham with 27.

When it comes to the top three in terms of ten wicket hauls in Test Matches the top three remain the same. Sir Richard Hadlee with 9 ten wicket hauls, compared to Warne’s 10 and Muralitharan’s 22. Anderson falls outside the top 28 bowlers when it comes to ten wickets in an innings having achieved the milestone three times; yet there is still time for him to climb into this top group. Amongst the English bowlers Sydney Barnes (7) George Lohmann (6), Derek Underwood (6) Sir Alec Bedser (5), Colin Blythe (4), Sir Ian Botham (4), Johnny Briggs (4) and Tom Richardson(4) are all in the top group of players.

When it comes to taking the most wickets in a series Anderson again does not make the top 36 wicket takers.

When it comes to taking wickets five wickets in an innings against the nine test playing countries only four bowlers have achieved this feat, Ragana Herath of Sri Lanka and Muttah Muralitharan also of Sri Lanka, Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh and Dale Steyn of South Africa.

If we look at bowlers taking wickets in consecutive innings Muralitharan comes in first and second with a run of 52 and 49 consecutive Test matches; Remarkable when you think he played 133 Test matches. Dennis Lillee (70 Tests) and Waqar Younis (87 Tests) top the quick bowlers both with 41 consecutive matches. James Anderson sits 24th with a run of 26 matches.

Turning our attention to bowlers who have taken more than 50 wickets in a calendar year in Test Cricket, there are a number of bowlers who consistently achieved this milestone. Spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne being the two main bowlers to have achieved it consistently. When it comes to the fast bowlers Glenn McGrath achieved the milestone five times. Then come a group of players including Malcolm Marshall, Bob Willis, Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and James Anderson who have all achieved the feat three times.

One area that James Anderson does excel is in the number of batsmen he has bowled. Only Muttiah Muraltharan has bowled more batsmen. The Sri Lankan bowled 167 of his 800 victims, Anderson has bowled 120 of his 611 so far. When it comes to wickets taken caught by the wicket-keeper he is number one with 166 wickets. Glenn McGrath is second with 152 of his 563 wickets taken this way. Of course when these statistics are looked at in percentage terms the picture changes.

Importantly, in the context of a Test Match James Anderson leads the pack when it comes to dismissing top order batsmen. On 231 occasions so far he has dismissed the top three batsman. Glenn McGrath is second having achieved this 225 times. In percentage terms, in other words the amount of times this has been achieved against the number of games played McGrath was more successful with his dismissal of the top three batsmen making up 39.96 of his overall wickets. Anderson’s percentage is 37.81. There are a number of other bowlers with a much higher percentage for example Wes Hall sits at 40.10, Indians Zaheer Khan at 45.02 and Kapil Dev at 40.32, Australia’s Graham McKenzie at 41.46 and South Africa’s Vernon Philander at 41.07.

He is one wicket away from matching Glenn McGrath’s record of dismissing the most batsmen for a duck. (103/102).

In terms of the speed in which he has taken his Test match wickets Fred Trueman was the fastest Englishman to 300 wickets, taking 65 matches. Sir Ian Botham took 72, while Bob Willis and Jimmy Anderson both took 81 matches and Stuart Broad 83. Anderson and Broad took 93 and 95 respectively to make it to 350, while Botham took 83 matches. Only Anderson and Broad have taken over 400 wickets for England and when it comes to reaching each milestone beyond that figure Anderson has been ahead of Broad,

There are some who say the measure of the greatness of a bowler is based on the number of times they almost singlehandedly tear through a batting line up. This writer has not watched Anderson’s career enough to be able to judge him on that, although as many have mentioned his spell in the 2nd innings of the first test of the series currently taking place in India turned the game England’s way.

However is he amongst the greatest fast bowlers of all time? Is he even amongst the greatest produced by England? As evidenced here Trueman and Tyson certainly are up there, Bob Willis too deserves to be in the mix. Remembering you can only perform against the teams that you play.

One of the criticisms of James Anderson’s career has always been that he has been unable to take his form in England on tour with him. One feels that for many historians to rank him amongst the true greats of the game in terms of his performances he will need to lower his bowling average away from England. Here for interest-sake is a comparison between the four England bowlers mentioned. These are their averages playing in these particular countries. This may not be fair as not every player played against every Test playing nation playing today. Also of course it does not take into account the strength of each nation at that point in time or the conditions. e.g. uncovered wickets.

The one thing this table does show is that for James Anderson to be considered as a true great it would appear he will need to lower his average on tour below the 30’s to be realistically considered as one of the all time greats.

He has been a consistent performer of that there can be no doubt. He has been a huge asset to England during the length of his career. He clearly is, as mentioned a remarkable individual to have kept going as long as he has, and to to still have the drive and commitment, but does that longevity and the results that have come from playing at the top for so long merit being talked about as an all time great? Or is this just hyperbole?

When one compares his career on the various levels as attempted here, using some statistics as a measure It is hard to justify the claims. Yet with others it is.

As stated it all comes down to each individual’s opinion. Anderson himself appears to just want to enjoy playing while the debate rages on, and credit to him. Ultimately time will tell how history judges his performances over his long career.