James Anderson retired in 2025 with 708 Test wickets, the most for a fast bowler, from 188 matches. Richard Gibson’s piece on the experience of keeping wicket to Anderson was first published in the 2025 edition of Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack.
James Anderson’s Test career had yet to reach its mid-point when team-mates realised they were in the presence of an all-time great. And if anyone was best-placed to assess his excellence, it was Matt Prior, who won 68 caps alongside him during a period of sustained success for England.
“He was brilliant in the 2010/11 Ashes – and the away win in India two winters later,” says Prior. “But I was especially in awe of him in the summer of 2012, when he had the ball on a piece of string. At Lord’s, he began the ninth over of the Test by going across West Indies left-hander Kieran Powell twice, and everyone in the slip cordon was saying: ‘Right, here comes the inswinger.’ But he didn’t play the old three-card trick. He went across him again, then again, each ball zipping into my gloves. It honestly felt like a lion hunting a helpless animal, holding off before going in for the kill.
“Sure enough, when the inswinger was unleashed fifth ball, it was absolutely on the money, straight through the gate, striking the top of off stump. I had just witnessed true, unadulterated skill, from the best seat in the house.”
Prior was one of a dozen wicketkeepers to enjoy the view during Anderson’s 22-year Test career, and his awe is echoed by his contemporary and rival, Tim Ambrose, who kept to Anderson in ten Tests. “Against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in 2008, the ball was swinging round corners,” says Ambrose. “Jimmy took seven first-innings wickets, and nine overall in a man-of-the-match display that left me thinking: ‘That’s just not fair.’ He started a couple straight, and they swung. When he began like that, he had people on toast. Quite often, bowlers hang it out wide and get a bit of shape, but as soon as they go straight, it darts off down the leg side. Not Jimmy, who dismissed the in-form Brendon McCullum with one that started outside leg and beat an attempted whip through the on side, knocking out the off pole.
“Most of the reactions from team-mates are similar when a replay comes up on the big screen. But this time it wasn’t: ‘Oh, what a ball.’ It was: ‘Well, that’s disgusting. It’s just not cricket.’ He was at his brilliant best on days like that. But he was always a dream to keep to, because he presented a very smooth seam, and that meant the ball rarely wobbled once it went past the bat. Obviously, he swung it very consistently, so as a keeper you could set up outside off stump, and stay there all day, knowing he was going to harass the edge for a living.”
Jos Buttler, who kept wicket in more Tests with Anderson than anyone bar Prior and Jonny Bairstow, says the job was “one of my favourite things about playing Test cricket. Watching Jimmy go about his business, setting opponents up, was very rewarding. In one of my first matches, at The Oval, he got Cheteshwar Pujara, a serious player. Jimmy worked him over, before producing a wobble-seam delivery that looked like it was coming in, but actually left him, taking the faintest edge on the way through. What a piece of bowling.
“The other moment I will always remember came in my next Test, in Antigua, when he went past Ian Botham’s England record. I thought: ‘Imagine if I’m the person who gets to take the catch.’ But it ended up being a fast leg-cutter to Denesh Ramdin that Alastair Cook caught at first slip. Jimmy wheeled around the ground in celebration and, having not moved, I was the first person he came back to. It was incredibly special: from the crowd, Sir Ian gave him the thumbs up. Yes, I got to be a team-mate, but I was still a fan – and lucky enough to be part of those ‘I was there’ moments.”
Ben Foakes also recollects a part in history, in early 2024. “It was a thin edge, but just being able to take the catch for Jimmy’s 700th wicket at Dharamsala was quite a cool moment,” he says. “I’ve got his boots from that match as well. He had chucked them in a pile of stuff to leave behind at the end of the tour. They looked comfy, and my plan was to wear them, but I was persuaded by team-mates on the final night to do something better than parade around in them for a season: I got him to sign them instead.”
Anderson’s 7,723-day Test career was by now on the wane, but not – says Foakes – his quality. “He just never bowled badly. The majority of bowlers have wonder spells, then tougher periods. Not him. Everyone knew how proficient he was in England, but his spell of reverse swing at Chennai in February 2021 was amazing, showing how he was prepared to switch his mode of attack, depending on conditions.
“In India, I also stood up to him, and this was when he was at his most challenging. Taller men like Stuart Broad slammed the ball into the wicket, taking pace off it in the process, and their shorter length meant a lot came through at waist height. Jimmy was much skiddier and fuller, so it felt like someone skimming stones at you: deliveries would skip off the surface, and hit you before you knew it.”
James Bracey, who kept wicket to Anderson during the two-match home series against New Zealand in 2021, has another take: “They were so very different to keep to. Whereas Broad offered quite extreme angles, bowling round the wicket, Jimmy was a bit more conventional and slightly tighter into the stumps. For that reason, he was nicer to keep to. Obviously, he had all the skills, but you also knew he had such good control that you could prepare for most things. He was always threatening the front pad and the stumps, and you had to be ready to take that chance when it came. But his ability to control the swinging and nipping ball probably made him the best I kept to.”
Sam Billings, too, enjoyed only a fleeting working relationship with Anderson, but it was no less memorable. “Jimmy presented me with my first Test cap, in Hobart,” he says. “We were golf partners, and a bit of a bizarre friendship had blossomed. We shouldn’t have, but we got on like a house on fire. Jimmy said to Phil Scott, England’s strength and conditioning coach: ‘Really, I should dislike everything about Sam.’ But we just hit it off. He spoke about what a good team man I was, and how much energy he thought I could bring to the group during that difficult Ashes tour: some really nice words from a Burnley lad to, as he would say, a posh southerner.
“The following summer, at Edgbaston – my only full home Test – we pulled off an incredible win against India. That zip, and pace through the air, made him a tricky proposition, and then he started bowling these massive inswingers, which are always difficult to keep to because you get dragged in tight to off stump, making the outside nick tougher to take. Thankfully, when there was a nick down leg from Shreyas Iyer, I managed to snaffle it one-handed. I will remember it as a special catch long into my old age.”
Prior singles out Anderson’s adaptability. “What made him so good was that he kept evolving, and asking himself: ‘Right, what do I need to do?’ He executed his plans while going at two and a half an over and building pressure, regardless of whether it was in India, Australia, on flat wickets, wherever.
“Jimmy could be the loveliest bloke, but he always had an edge. When he woke up in the morning, he was grumpy – and he’d be grumpy for most of the day. But that was because he always wanted to do well. He and Graeme Swann were great mates, but they drove each other mental arguing who was going to take five wickets that day, no matter the surface.”
Alec Stewart first encountered Anderson during one-day internationals in the winter of 2002/03, including the World Cup. “It was his pre-red-streak-Mohawk days,” says Stewart, “and I’d heard good things about him, such as the fact that he’d dismissed Mark Ramprakash first ball on his first-class debut at Old Trafford. And that he bowled fast.”
He also kept wicket on Anderson’s Test debut, which he marked with a five-for against Zimbabwe, but Stewart pinpoints the match-winning 4-29 against Pakistan at the World Cup in Cape Town three months earlier as the highlight of their brief alliance: “Both Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Yousuf were dismissed first ball by perfect outswingers, and he was still getting the ball to move through the air towards the end of his ten-over spell, taking two wickets in an over. He bowled people out and took their edges, all at good pace. I have admired him ever since.”
That preceded Anderson’s first regeneration, triggered by an attempt to remodel his action. Modifications to his natural method had been made to reduce the chances of a stress fracture, but with little success. In 2006, he was struggling with injury, and had lost his form and confidence.
“Jimmy turned out to be a complete legend of the game, but my main memory was of him being around the changing-room wearing a big back brace,” says Geraint Jones, who overlapped with Anderson for seven Tests. “He was trying to get back into the side, wasn’t a new-ball bowler – he came on second- or even third-change – and hadn’t got the level of control he went on to develop. He was still searching for his best method. I got on really well with him, but at that stage of his career he was a bit of a tourist, hanging around and waiting for an opportunity.”
Chris Read was in and out of the team around the same time. “After his back injury, he simply got better and better with what he was able to do with the ball,” he says. “He developed an extraordinary control of line, mixing it with an ability to beat opponents on either edge. For that reason, he’s the most skilful bowler I’ve ever played with or against. Being so close when he was on song was a joy, and the performance I recall most fondly was the hat-trick he took in a one-dayer against Pakistan at The Oval in 2003, because I played a part, catching Shoaib Akhtar – the second of the three.”
Everything changed when England moved on from the 2005 Ashes winners Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison during the 2007-08 tour of New Zealand. Stewart believes Anderson “followed the path of Richard Hadlee, another out-and-out quick who became more skilful as the years rolled on. Jimmy was so clever, which is why he was still improving right until the end.”
Aside from the back trouble in 2006, Anderson was seldom injured. “Being very light helped him,” says Prior. “When you’re not carrying those extra pounds, it’s easier on the body. Over the years, people said he might be more effective if he was taller, but he was very strong within his core, and being lithe and athletic helped him avoid injury.”
There was resilience, too. A year after being dropped for England’s tour of the Caribbean in early 2022, and now into his forties, he regained his status as the world No. 1. And he remained in the higher echelons until 2024, when his final Test, against West Indies at Lord’s, coincided with Jamie Smith’s arrival. “The overriding feeling for me was nervousness,” says Smith. “Not because it was my debut, but because I didn’t want to drop one off Jimmy, especially in that second innings, when you knew everyone was willing him to get the final wicket. We were all hoping a nick didn’t come our way. I only kept to him in one Test, yet every ball felt like an event. He was hitting the gloves reasonably hard: it wasn’t like he went from 91mph down to 65.
“Sometimes you can be standing out in the field, thinking you’re never going to get the ball, but with him there was always that expectation a chance would come. I guess he’s made plenty of wicketkeepers feel like that over the years, and it was special to be part of his farewell.”
Richard Gibson is cricket correspondent of The Mail on Sunday.
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