James Anderson is regarded as the finest fast bowler playing the game in the current era. With 686 wickets, he is the highest wicket-taking pacer in Test cricket and third highest overall. He has been terrorising world-class batters for two decades and has registered 32 five-wicket hauls in the format with his best bowling figures in a game being 11/71. But Indian speedster Ishant Sharma feels that Zaheer Khan, former India left-arm pacer, was a better bowler than Anderson.
In an interview with Ranveer Allahabadia on YouTube, Ishant stated that Anderson would not have been so successful, had he played the majority of his games in Indian conditions.
“Jimmy Anderson’s bowling style and method is quite different. He plays in different conditions in England. Maybe if he played in India…,” Ishant then stopped.
The anchor smiled and said, “…maybe he wouldn’t have found that kind of success.”
In reply, Ishant said, “Zak is better than Jimmy Anderson.”
Zaheer represented India in 92 matches in the longest format and claimed 311 wickets. He also played 200 ODIs for India and picked 282 wickets. The former left-arm pacer ended his Test career with 11 five-wicket hauls.
Ishant further spoke about an incident that happened back during the India vs New Zealand Test in Wellington in 2014. There are several videos on social media platforms in which Ishant could be seen saying cuss words as Brendon McCullum takes three runs off his bowling before Zaheer collects the bowl and throws it back.
The veteran Indian pacer clarified and said he was venting his frustration over himself and has never abused any of his teammates even for dropping a catch off his bowling.
“I had told that to myself. To this day, people don’t understand to whom I said that. I have never abused anyone who has dropped a catch. How can say that to Zak? He is literally like a guru for me. I have never even thought about saying anything like that. It was just frustrating because Brendon McCullum was scoring a lot of runs. There were only three fast bowlers – me, Zak and [Mohammed] Shami. After almost every four overs, we had to bowl again and the wicket was very flat. I was just removing the frustration on myself,” he said.
While Zaheer called time on his international cricket career in 2012, Anderson is still active in international cricket as a Test cricket specialist and is currently in the England squad for the Ashes 2023. He had a poor outing against Australia in the recently concluded Edgbaston Test as he could pick only one wicket and conceded 109 runs.
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