Anderson kept celebrated Indian batting line-up on their toes

Hans India

19-06-2025

To say the least, a relatively inexperienced batting line up led by Shubman Gill would be relieved to see the name of James Anderson, once a constant in the multiple chapters of India-England rivalry over the past two decades, missing in the opposition roster.
From Anderson's first series against India in 2006 to the last one in 2024, the age defying fast bowler kept the celebrated Indian batting line-up on their toes -- his battles with the great Sachin Tendulkar in late 2000s or the much more animated duels with Virat Kohli in the previous decade still fresh in one's mind.
Fast forward to 2025, both India and England have moved on from Kohli and Anderson respectively but considering the injuries to the likes of Jofra Archer and Mark Wood, Ben Stokes may have indulged in wishful thinking, imagining the holder of a record 704 Test wickets opening the bowling at Leeds.
If Anderson can return to county cricket to bail out a struggling Lancashire 12 months after his fitting farewell, trust him to do the same for a depleted England attack.
That is unlikely to happen but by sheer weight of his performances over his 21-year-old career, Anderson has immortalised himself in India-England cricket history with the series trophy named after him and Tendulkar, whom he was able to dismiss nine times.
Anderson not only defied age to last as long as he did for a fast bowler, the hallmark of his career was relentless accuracy and exemplary control over his ability to swing the ball both ways.
Courtesy these special skills, Anderson was able to exploit Kohli's weakness around the off-stump in the 2014 series before the latter overcame those mental demons four years later to 'dominate' the world's most prolific pacer in the longest format.
'I really exploited, he had a weakness outside off stump, really exploited that and then the next time I played against him (in 2018) he'd obviously gone away and worked on that and it was like bowling at a different player,' Anderson told talkSport recently.
Come Friday, the likely opening combination of K L Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal will have one less challenge to deal with: no Anderson with a brand new Dukes ball.
In the 39 Tests he played against India home and away, Anderson amassed 149 wickets at a very fine average of 25.47. The best of fast bowlers struggled in India but he reinvented his game to end with 44 wickets in 17 Tests in polar opposite conditions. His mastery of reverse swing allowed him to do that.
Former England opener Nick Knight said the Indian batting line up minus Kohli and Rohit Sharma would be happy to see Anderson out of the park but England made the right call by looking at the future.
'England will move forward now. And they've got plenty of talent, plenty of abilities like all these guys. But I'm certainly sure that India would be happy to see him getting retired now.
'And I think the last series that Indian won (in England) was in 2007, probably Jimmy was part of that series as well. So, he's been a constant,' Knight told PTI.
He feels the timing to rename the trophy after Tendulkar and Anderson could not be better.
'It's a very, very fine tribute. And the right sort of timing for the Jimmy Anderson-Tendulkar trophy. Just the kind of right thing to do in such an iconic series. I played with Jimmy when he first came in.
'I was sort of someone at the back end of my career. And he was just starting out. You could see right from the start he was a lad who had great control of the swinging ball.
'And very little discernible difference between the one that went in and the one that went away. I think that of all the little skills he had, technically that was a great skill. It's very difficult to predict which way the ball was going out of his hand.