Last week Jimmy Anderson broke the record for the most test wickets for England, but would he be in anyone best ever England eleven.
Certainly in Anderson's favour is his longevity the first specialist bowler to do this for England, he has also stayed pretty injury free through his career, the other key thing to consider is that test cricket has become more of a batsman game, if you look 20 years ago anyone averaging over 40 was considered a good player in today's world you need to be going pass 50 to be considered as a top draw batsman.
The final piece when considering Anderson against some of his peers is the quality of the pitches that he has to bowl on, you just have to look at the pitches in the current series in the Caribbean which are lasting well into the 5 days and sheer persistent rather than outright speed and guile are rewarded.
In the case against Anderson whilst winning the odd test match he has never dominated a series, particularly against Australia, there is not for instance a DVD available called Anderson Ashes.
Leading on from this Anderson has been widely acclaimed as being high skilled in his art but never as truly frightening or unplayable, if you look back at 1981 Botham and Willis were truly devastating Anderson has never had such a day.
I have purposely avoided slavishly doing statistical analysis to prove a point as I don't feel this really adds to the argument, and the game has changed beyond recognition in the last 10 years let alone the last 50.
My view is that Anderson is a good bowler but wouldn't make the final eleven of my all time England team, for what it is worth I would go for the following players to make up my bowling line up.
Andrew Flintoff- Devastating pace when he really want to put it in, and had a golden arm.
Ian Botham- Particularly in the early years when he had combination of pace and swing
Bob Willis- I will forgive his boring persona on Sky and remember his excellent controlled fast bowling.
Graham Swann- Underwood is before my time and Swann although having DRS to help has got over 200 wickets in a successful England team on batting friendly wickets.
The other bowling vacancy is difficult to fill do you go for the unreliable sheer pace of Harmison, swing bowling of Hoggard or Anderson, however final vote goes to Gough who gives you combination of pace and seam bowling craft to complete the bowling attack.
How many quicks from this era are all time greats ? Steyn - maybe. Johnson - possibly. It might be the pitches, 20/20 or the sheer amount of cricket but it's clearly a different era from say 20 years ago when there was Waqar, Wasim, Donald, Pollock, Ambrose, Walsh etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat Anderson is is probably England's most consistent fast bowler of all time. He doesn't run through teams like Broad does but he rarely bowls badly and always picks up wickets. He hasn't always had 4 other bowlers to help him and has sometimes had to be both stock and strike bowler simply because he is the teams best bowler. He had apparently also bowled 20% more overs than any other quick in test cricket since 2008.
I would rate him as the best English bowler I've seen other than Botham 77/84 and when he does retire he can always bask in the glory of Adelaide 2010 or Trent Bridge 2013 (or even Greneda 2015). He will only be fully appreciated when he retires....