Senior India pacer Ishant Sharma believes that James Anderson is fortunate to be playing a lot of Test matches in pace bowling-friendly conditions in England. Ishant Sharma, who is currently out of the Indian Test team since last year, also added that former India pacer and his ex-teammate Zaheer Khan is a better bowler than James Anderson.
Anderson is statistically the leading pacer in the world of all time. The 40-year-old Lancashire-born seamer has snapped up 686 Test wickets – the highest in the world – in 180 Tests and is only behind spinners Shane Warne (708), and Muttiah Muralitharan (800) in Test cricket.
However, Former Indian Seamer pointed out that English Seamer has bowled the majority of his career in helpful English conditions where there is plenty of swing and seam movement available.
On the other hand, Zaheer Khan, Ishant said, has spent his time bowling on flatter, tiring, pitches in India where he’s had to work much harder than in overseas, pace-assisting conditions. Zaheer finished his career with 311 wickets in 92 Tests.
“Jimmy Anderson’s bowling style and method are quite different. He plays in different conditions in England. Maybe if he played in India… Zak is better than Jimmy Anderson,” Sharma said on Ranveer Allahbadia’s YouTube channel.
Ishant Sharma is India’s first proper seamer to feature in 100 Tests.
In 105 Test matches, the lanky Delhi seamer snapped up 311 wickets. However, with some dip in form, he was dropped from the Test team last year.
In that interview, Ishant also spoke of his close friend Virat Kohli.
Recalling Kohli’s difficult period when his father passed away yet he came out to bat in a domestic game, Ishant said: “The day Virat Kohli’s father passed away, he was alone & sad, didn’t know how to react but then he batted & won the game when he was just 17 years – till today I don’t understand how, if that happens to me, I would not have been gone to ground,”
