I tried to learn from Zaheer Khan: James Anderson

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New Delhi: Veteran England fast bowler James Anderson has revealed that he used to watch former India left-arm fast bowler Zaheer Khan often and tried to learn from him to understand the balls that would bowl in the conditions here. I can do good work. Anderson told GeoCinema, “There are no better bowlers than Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj. He is a world class bowler. You also have Ishant Sharma there and it is a really strong bowling attack. For me, Zaheer Khan was someone I looked up to and learned a lot from. How he used reverse swing, how he covered the ball when he ran in to bowl, that’s something I tried to develop while playing against him many times here. ” Anderson also admitted that he was surprised by Jasprit Bumrah’s magical spell in Visakhapatnam, which included a reverse-swinging masterclass to take six wickets in England’s first innings. “With someone of his quality you don’t expect him to do that. Expect standard. You know reverse swing can play a big role in India and he is a great exponent of that. He has good pace and is very accurate and consistent.”“The yorker we saw from Ollie Pope. It is no coincidence that he has reached number one in the world. He is a world-class bowler and from our point of view we were not surprised that he performed like that.” At the age of 41, Anderson is England’s leading wicket-taker in Tests with 698 wickets, a tally that exceeds that at international level. But it is very rare to see. “Yeah, I think you look at things like that, but honestly, I just go with what I feel 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 youth in training. I can still bowl at the pace I want, I can still deliver the skill I want. So, that’s the most important thing for me. Age is just a number and it is quite irrelevant to my thought process.” Asked whether the art of swing bowling was dying out, Anderson refuted such thoughts. “I don’t think it’s going away. Due to the evolution of white-ball cricket in recent times, the focus has shifted to changes in pace and different balls like yorkers and things like that. But for me, in Test cricket, we have already seen throughout this series that swing can play a big role.” “Well, I think as a senior player it is really important that you play as much as possible. Give as much advice as you can, especially where we have some guys in our team who haven’t necessarily played that well here. So, I think it’s important that you give advice but at the same time don’t try to impose yourself on them.” “I think it’s important that they also ask questions, let them try to find their way. Because it’s different for every player. I can’t tell Ollie Robinson or Gus Atkinson that you should bowl this way here. They are very different bowlers to me so they have to find what works for them. Anderson also believes that it is unfortunate that Virat Kohli has pulled out of the series due to personal reasons, which will lead to a face-off between the two as cricket fans. Missed out on seeing the encounter. “Yeah, you always want to play against the best players. And it’s a shame he hasn’t been a part of the series. We’ve had some great battles over the years.” “But just Not for me, I think as a team you want to play against the best in the world and that’s definitely the case. I think the English fans will be grateful that he’s not playing because he’s a quality player. But from our point of view you want to test yourself, you want to come up against the best and he’s someone who has been quite challenging for me to bowl against over the last few years and it’s a shame he’s not playing. Anderson signed off by recalling his fond memories of the 2-1 series win in India in 2012. “The 2012 series, when we came here, is probably the biggest series. I don’t think any English team would have won here for a very long time – about 20 years. So, for us to win here, it was probably one of the best series wins of my career.” ‘You know, it was a great team performance. The batsmen came when we needed them. We also had good spinners on that tour, which helped. So, I think it’s a perfect fit for me.”–IANS

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