Jimmy Anderson’s Fantastic Test Cricket Career

Anderson bowling
Anderson bowling (Credit Nic Redhead via Wikipedia)

Jimmy Anderson has finally bowed out of Test match cricket, just a matter of days before his 42nd birthday. With Stuart Broad having retired in 2023 it is very much the end of an era for English cricket. Anderson is expected to continue playing cricket for his club, unlike the younger Broad, but it is very much a changing of the guard as far as English Test cricket.

The Burnley Lara, as he was ironically sometimes called, almost immediately moved into a coaching/mentorship role with the England team. He has far too much expertise, experience and bowling know-how for Ben Stokes or Baz McCullum to ignore and he will be of so much experience to England’s new crop of bowlers.

Based on merit alone, he could almost certainly have represented his nation for at least another year or two. However, it was felt that in order to give younger players time to grow into the Test team, very much with a view to winning the Ashes in Australia in 2025 and 2026, now was a good time for him to step down.

Fitting Farewell


Broad had a fairytale goodbye to his career, incredibly hitting the last ball he faced as a batter for six, and taking a wicket with the last ball he ever bowled – to win the Test against old rivals Australia. Nothing could top that, but Jimmy was given the chance to end his career on his terms, with what was essentially a goodbye Test at Lord’s.

It was his 188th Test match, an England record, beating his old bowling partner Broad by 21 games and his old skipper Alastair Cook by 27. Anderson took four wickets in the match in a typically efficient, ever so slightly understated way. England routed the West Indies, largely down to a man who Anderson is in a way making space for.

Gus Atkinson took an incredible 12 wickets on his Test debut. It was a fitting way for the baton to be passed, although even Jimmy, never one to want the limelight, may have been slightly galled by the fact that his own best haul in 188 games was 11 wickets! Anderson very nearly took five wickets in the match and equalled Broad’s feat of bowing out with a wicket, but with nine down he dropped a tricky catch off his own bowling.

It wasn’t to be though. Many felt that Anderson’s retirement, essentially enforced by Stokes and McCullum, came too soon. Had he been allowed to play on he could have finished his career at his home ground of Old Trafford against Sri Lanka. However, his first Test, all those years ago, came at Lord’s, and so perhaps this game provided a nice symmetry.

Back to 2003

It all began for Anderson on the 22nd of May, 2003 with a game at the home of cricket against Zimbabwe. Everyone knew the raw pace bowler had potential and he showed it, taking five wickets in his first innings in Test cricket. Not too many times since then, and certainly not for many years, would he have had an economy as poor as 4.56 runs an over but he was a different bowler back then, yet to develop his trademark control.

Teammates that day included Nasser Hussain, Ashley Giles and Alec Stewart, showing just what a long period Jimmy’s career at the top has spanned. 21 years is a long time in any sport and his longevity is arguably the most impressive thing about his whole career.

In the second innings, Jimmy (and fellow opener Matthew Hoggard) went wicketless. Fact for trivia fans: Mark Butcher was the leading wicket-taker in Zimbabwe’s second innings with four wickets! But England won easily by an innings and 92 runs and it was clear they had a fantastic prospect on their hands. Though, of course, nobody could possibly have predicted what would happen over the next 39,851 balls of his Test career.

Jimmy’s Test Career in Numbers

Anderson
Anderson (Credit Ben Sutherland via Wikipedia)

There are so many stats and facts about Anderson’s career that are truly remarkable. All the players he has appeared alongside, the age-related records he has broken, the Cristiano Ronaldo-esque way he has defied time and been as good, and almost certainly better, in his 30s. Here, however, is a brief summary of the key numbers and facts about his life as a Test match bowler.

  • First Test – Versus Zimbabwe | Lord’s | 22-24 May, 2003 (5/73 in first innings)
  • Last Test – Versus West Indies | Lord’s | 10-12 July, 2024 (takes four wickets in match)
  • Tests Played – 188, an England record, second to Sachin Tendulkar overall (200)
  • Wickets – 704, England record and most by any pace bowler | Third overall behind Shane Warne (708) and Muthiah Muralidaran (800)
  • Balls – 40,037 bowled (based on one minute per ball, that’s almost 28 days of non-stop bowling!)
  • Average, Strike Rate and Economy – Jimmy’s wickets came at a very decent 26.45 and he took one every 56.8 balls | Each of the approximately 6,673 overs he bowled went for a meagre 2.79 runs
  • Best Figures – His best match figures were the 11/71 he recorded against Pakistan at Trent Bridge in 2010 | That included 6/17 in the second innings as the tourists were skittled for just 80 | His best figures in an innings were 7/42 against the West Indies.
  • 5 and 10 Wickets – Anderson took five wickets in an innings on 32 occasions, taking 10 in a match three times
  • Anderson the Batsman – He scored 1,353 runs with the bat, averaging almost nine | He invariably batted at number 11 but had a top score of 81, the highest by an English number 11 (coming against India in 2014)

A Legend in the World of Cricket

These numbers clearly show what an incredible career the Burnley king of swing had but despite this, he still has his critics. “Critics” is perhaps too strong a word, but there are certainly those who question his greatness, pointing to the fact that he only took so many wickets because he played so many matches.

There are two main points to note that counter this argument. First, his longevity in itself is an amazing accomplishment. Running in and bowling at 80+ miles per hour over 40,000 times takes a real toll on the body. Of the 20 cricketers to have played the most Tests only Anderson (188 games), Broad (167) and Courtney Walsh (132) were fast bowlers.

The second point to note is that the only players to have taken more wickets than him are spin bowlers. Whilst they played fewer games than Jimmy, both actually bowled more balls. Anderson’s strike rate is actually a fraction better than Warne’s (56.87 compared to 57.49 for the Aussie) and not far behind Muli’s (55.04).

Quite how England’s new bowling mentor compares to others does not ultimately matter. He is a true legend of English cricket, a remarkable player, and one who has set records that are sure to stand for many, many years to come.