James Anderson, the master craftsman of seam-and-swing bowling

James Anderson was alone when he raised his right arm at the end of the West Indies Test at Lord’s, and waved farewell to a capacity crowd who cheered him to the echo. But, as he climbed the Pavilion steps for the final time as an England cricketer, he was accompanied by superlatives. Of all pace bowlers from all countries, he had the most Test wickets, the longest international career, and the most extensive knowledge of the workings of a ball’s seam. And though Curtly Ambrose and Glenn McGrath may have been his modern equals, none has been more accurate (even if they were more economical).

What made the time and place so appropriate for his 188th and final Test was that he was the lord of Lord’s, where he had more Test wickets – 123 – than anyone. He had taken the first in 2003 with outswing from the Nursery End – but the majority with seam, notably wobble seam, from the Pavilion End. In his final game, he combined the methods. On his journey, Anderson became the master craftsman of seam-and-swing bowling.

His England career can be divided into four parts, from what I saw from the boundary’s edge. Such a perspective brings some objectivity, but not intimate observation. That came only once, on Andrew Strauss’s winning tour of Australia in 2010/11. In a neat role reversal, the England coaches and players gave the media a pre-series practice session in Hobart’s indoor nets. We had to try to hit the top of off stump. Then a helmet was placed on a pole, simulating a right-hander’s head in his stance, and Anderson was detailed to hit it. The transformation was startling. In this befriending-the-media session, in all-male company, he had been a silent introvert (though not too silent, I found, when ghosting him on that tour for The Sunday Telegraph). The moment he began his run-up, he turned into a wild colt on the prairies that no rein could restrain, wild of mane too in his younger days. Clang! Nets or not, he saw his target and went for the throat.

He began as a pure swing bowler, most balls going away, the odd one in. Thus we are told by Dale Benkenstein, who was the Burnley professional in the summers when Anderson turned 15 and 19 (it was a nice reconnection that Benkenstein was coaching Lancashire in Anderson’s lone Championship game before his final Test). The lad, according to Benkenstein, was always a perfectionist. The outswinger was his form of self-expression, describing the same beautiful arc as Fred Trueman’s, or Ian Botham’s in his early years. The variation came when Anderson delivered not so much from one o’clock as 11 o’clock, nearly brushing his right ear, and swung the ball into the right-hander’s front pad, or between it and bat.

A bowler cannot live by swing alone, however – not in the 21st century, when ever stronger batsmen drive with ever meatier bats. One Anderson record is unwelcome. After England had been whitewashed in the 2006/07 Ashes, a T20 international was staged at the SCG, a light-hearted occasion, only the 13th of its kind. It was light-hearted, that is, for Australia’s batsmen, beginning with Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, not for England – and especially not for Anderson. Never again would he return figures of 4-0-64-1; he made sure of that. The vulnerability of the contemporary swing bowler had been exposed. Pulling back his length in white-ball cricket, he became England’s leading ODI wicket-taker, with 269. More fully equipped, Anderson in his second phase, and next Ashes tour of Australia, hit his peak.

Typifying how cricket is a batsman’s game, the Brisbane Test of 2010/11 is remembered for Alastair Cook’s unbeaten 235 and for England’s 517-1 declared. Yet from behind Anderson’s arm at the Vulture Street End, I was amazed at how often probability could be denied. During the partnership of 307 between Mike Hussey and Brad Haddin, Anderson kept going past the edges of left- and right-hander – as they defended, too, not trying booming drives. I would say this was when England stated their superiority, that they were going to win in Australia – that once-in-a-generation achievement of English cricket. At Melbourne, Australia were routed for 98. And in their second innings, advised by the former Victorian pace bowler David Saker, England reverse-swung the ball before the 15th over. The player of the series should have been shared between the inveterate friends and darts opponents: Cook for his 766 runs, Anderson for his 24 wickets.

Country by country, he found a way not to make the ball talk but to do what he commanded – Sri Lanka last, though he got there in the end. In India in late 2012, he did whatever Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar had left undone. He enabled England to maintain their grip and win the series. Only in hindsight can the scale of this triumph be appreciated fully: for the next dozen years, India won every Test series at home.

From this second phase, when Anderson was at his peak, dates my favourite memory, one of his three ten-fors: Trent Bridge in 2013, the opening Test, England holding the urn. An example of how flat the pitch had become was Ashton Agar’s 98 at No.11 in Australia’s first innings; in their second, they were chasing 311. Stuart Broad was spent, Steven Finn wayward, and Swann ineffectual. It was either Anderson, or 1-0 to Australia.

He was forced, not least by affection for his captain, to bowl a 13-over spell on the final morning; Cook, as a return gesture, caught three off the second new ball. But Haddin and James Pattinson still headed briskly for the finishing line. We know that if England go one down in the Ashes, they need a Botham-at-Headingley miracle to win. Walking back to his mark at the Radcliffe Road End, Anderson was magnificent in his stamina, his refusal to accept defeat, his carrying the team on his back. That England victory by 14 runs was, for me, his finest hour.

Central contracts kicked in. Anderson and Broad, instead of going all year round in every format, could plan, train and peak for each assignment. What might their predecessors have done on a central contract? From May 1894 to September 1898, Tom Richardson bowled over 42,000 balls in first-class cricket – more than Anderson in his Test career. John Snow, Bob Willis and Botham could have channelled their energies, instead of bowling for their counties six or even seven days a week. In the 1990s, England could have beaten any team at home with an attack of Darren Gough, Andy Caddick, Angus Fraser and Dominic Cork – but they played not a single Test together.

In his third phase, Anderson was more defensive, intent on economy and bowling dry. The classic cases were the two day/night Tests in Adelaide, with the pink ball there to be swung. He was economical: 31-5-74-1 in the first innings of 2017/18, and 29-10-58-2 in the first of 2021/22. But he did not have the strike-rate of a strike bowler endowed with the first and second new balls. An average of 3.7 wickets per Test overall, for one equipped more than half the time with a Dukes ball in England, is unexceptional.

An early example of this bowling dry occurred when Anderson was confronted with the left-handed Graeme Smith at The Oval in 2012, and angled the new ball across him. On the radio on England’s 2019/20 tour of South Africa, Smith recalled how pleased he was at this line of attack, or rather defence: he simply had to wait for the delivery swinging into his pads, which had been Anderson’s stock ball to him in the past but was a surprise ball now. And all the while the new ball was a diminishing asset. Anderson was frugal in that Test, going at 2.82, and data was found to prove he became more effective somehow, his average lower, when bowling across left-handers. Smith made his hundred, and declared at 637-2.

A wider disaffection, in truth, grew in the England Test side under Joe Root’s captaincy. He was not one to lay down the law to his senior bowlers, as Ben Stokes was to do. All was relatively well during the honeymoon when Root’s England won 26 of his first 47 Tests; it was an ugly divorce, to be heard outside the dressing-room, during his last 17 in charge. Anderson and Broad were excluded from the tour of the West Indies by Strauss, when he was brought back as director of cricket. They always gave everything in support of fellow bowlers, diving around in the last hour when their predecessors stuck out a boot; Anderson’s zeal and athleticism in the field were exceptional. But the pair had lost conviction in their batting during this period of disaffection, or rift. In his last 22 Test innings under Root, Anderson totalled 41 runs, reverse-sweeping liberally (Broad managed 66 from 15).

Under Stokes, Anderson in his fourth phase reverted to targeting stumps and pads, not economy. New balls were maximised again. He was getting on, and lost his nip during the 2023 Ashes: starting with that series, he took a wicket in his first spell only twice in his final 17 innings. But I think he was right to carry on when Broad retired, to ease the transition. In India, he kept his place until, in the foothills of the Himalayas, he became the first pace bowler to scale the summit of 700 Test wickets.

It is pointless to compare batsmen with bowlers: was Don Bradman a better cricketer than Sydney Barnes? Pointless to compare pace bowlers with Anderson’s zeal and athleticism in the field were exceptional spinners: was Malcolm Marshall a better bowler than Shane Warne? In the same way, I shy from comparing Anderson with Trueman or Snow or Larwood. Each had their methods designed to suit their times. Trueman was a swing bowler, Anderson England’s first seam-and-swing bowler.

What we should always remember is this: the pressure inherent in bowling the first ball of a Test or series. Anderson did it again and again without once getting the yips, or spraying it to second slip. We came to take him for granted, that he would almost always set the right tone for England in the field. And, as a perfectionist, he almost always did.

Scyld Berry, a former Wisden editor, covered cricket for The Telegraph throughout Anderson’s career.

Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.