Veteran England pacer James Anderson recently concluded another disappointing Ashes tour in Australia. Joe Root’s side succumbed to a 4-0 defeat – as they did 4 years ago – and will go back with little positives.
One of those positive was their bowling. Without the pace of Jofra Archer and the variety of Sam Curran, England still did manage to win some sessions due to their other pacers. One of whom was their greatest-ever, James Anderson, who finished with 8 wickets in 3 Tests.
He picked those wickets at an average of 23 in unhelpful conditions while conceding a scarcely believable economy of 1.79 across the three Tests. Anderson registered his best figures of the series, 4/33, in Melbourne.
The legendary pacer has revealed now that he learned the special skill of bowling wobble seam deliveries from watching former Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif during their clash in 2010.
In an interview with Cricket7, Anderson said that he had noticed Asif bowling wobble seam during Pakistan tour of England in the 2010 summer. He observed that Asif then wasn’t trying to swing or seam much, but instead focused on jagging the ball off the seam.
“In summer 2010, we played against Pakistan and Mohammad Asif was bowling this ball which just wobbled a little bit, it was not seaming nor swinging, he was just trying to nip off the seam. So I spent the whole summer practising that and working on it and was comfortable to bowl here [in Australia] which actually brought success for me throughout that series,” James Anderson said.
Anderson had used this wobble seam delivery at home against India last year where he troubled the likes of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara with it.
The 39-year-old pacer is coming to the close of his international career, however, he has only gotten better in the past few years. With 640 Test wickets to his name, James Anderson is the leading wicket-taker among pacers.
And with 169 Tests under his belt, he is England’s most-capped Test cricketer – and only second behind Sachin Tendulkar who has played in 200 Tests – which is an incredible feat considering he is a pace bowler.
As for Mohammad Asif, once destined for greatness, his career came to an end when he was found guilty of spot-fixing in a 2010 Lord’s Test. Asif picked up 106 wickets in 23 Tests, recording seven five-wicket hauls and one 10-wicket match haul.
