Record wicket taker has played a fifth of all England’s Tests, and the absence of his guile and skill will take some getting used to
The day Fred Trueman took his 300th Test wicket, they asked him if he thought anyone would ever beat his record. “Aye,” Trueman said, “but they’ll be bloody tired when they do.” Well, three dozen have in the 60 years since, nine of them were spinners, a craft with its own particular pains and difficulties, but it’s the 27 fast bowlers among them who know, deep in their own bones, the kind of tiredness Trueman was talking about. There’s Dennis Lillee on 355, Wasim Akram on 414, Glenn McGrath on 563, Stuart Broad on 604, and then, off beyond the lot of them, Jimmy Anderson, on 700 and counting.
Anderson has one last summer of Test cricket ahead of him; chances are there’s not many wickets left to add. There may be a farewell Test, or three, perhaps one at his home ground of Old Trafford, where he already has an end named after him. He will have a shot at beating Shane Warne’s total of 708 Test wickets and taking second place on the all-time list behind Muttiah Muralitharan. After that, England will bank on their younger, faster bowlers and beat on towards the Ashes without him.
