Veteran England speedster James Anderson, who continues to lead England’s attack at the age of 41, said that Zaheer Khan taught him a few pace bowling techniques, including reverse swing. He is just two Test wickets away from becoming the first pacer to reach 700. Muthiah Muralidaran and Shane Warne are the only spinners to have reached the feat as well.
Anderson began his Test career in 2003, three years after former India pacer Zaheer Khan. While the Indian retired in 2014 with over 600 wickets across formats, Anderson is still playing at the age of 41 as well. Zaheer Khan was a master of the old ball and Anderson opined on being inspired by Zaheer Khan’s bowling and technique as well
“For me, Zaheer Khan was someone I used to watch a lot to try and learn from,” James Anderson told JioCinema. “How he used the reverse swing, how he covered the ball when he ran into bowl, that’s something I tried to sort of develop on the back of playing against him quite a few times here.”
“With someone of his quality you expect that standard from him. You know that reverse swing can play a big part in India and he’s a great exponent of it. He’s got good pace and is very accurate, very consistent. That yorker we saw to Ollie Pope, he’s got that up his sleeve as well. It’s not a fluke that he’s got to number one in the world. He’s a world-class bowler and from our point of view we weren’t surprised that he put up a performance like that,” he further added.
When he was asked about his fitness, James Anderson stated that he felt ready to compete with all of his team’s young players, some of whom were not even born when he made his debut in the longer format.
“Yeah, I guess you do look at things like that, but to be honest, I just go with the feel of me and my body. I don’t feel like I’m 41 years and 200 days old. You know, I still feel young. I can keep up with the young guys in training. I can still bowl the speeds that I want to, I can still deliver the skills that I want to. So, for me that’s the most important thing. Age is just a number and it’s pretty irrelevant from my thought process,” concluded James Anderson.
