James Anderson is one of the greatest fast bowlers to ever play the game of test cricket and he has recently retired.  His career has been absolutely staggering so we are here to break it down for you. He is an absolute champion and a true legend that all the teams respect a lot and the batters are relieved that they will not have to face him anymore. James Anderson has taken 991 Wickets in international cricket.

James Anderson Bowling Stats:

He has taken 704 Test Wickets in his glittering test career with 188 test matches under his belt. He has achieved the goal of picking up 700 test wickets which is unheard of when it comes to fast bowlers because only two spinners have taken more than 700 test Wickets and no other fast bowler is even close to him. He has also taken 269 Wickets in ODIs and 18 in T20Is. 

Let’s look at James Anderson's top 5 best performances

7/42 vs West Indies (2017): James Anderson Best Bowling Figures in Test in an innings

This was a test match where scoring runs was like getting diamonds from a rubble, it was extremely difficult and the Bowlers were having a ball bowling on this Lord’s wicket and this career highest bowling performance by James Anderson came in the second innings of this test match and he absolutely rocked the West Indies batting line-up from start to end and their batters had no answer to one of the best ever and he picked up 7 wickets for only 42 runs in 20.1 overs at an economy Rate of 2.08 and due to his brilliance England were able to win this test match by 9 wickets and he cemented himself as an all time legend of the sport. He got the Wickets of Kraigg Braithwaite, Shai Hope, Roston Chase and others.

7/43 vs New Zealand (2008)

This was a test match In the year 2008 between England and New Zealand and Jimmy Anderson was in his prime during that time and he showed no mercy on the New Zealand batters in this Test match at Trent Bridge as he yet again picked up 7 wickets in the first innings of New Zealand after England had put up a respectable score of 364. He took the wickets quickly and never allowed the New Zealand batters to recover and they were bowled out for just 123 runs and they would lose this test match by an innings and 9 runs. He took the Wickets of Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram among others. He bowled 21.3 overs in this innings at an economy Rate of 2.00.

6/17 vs Pakistan (2010)

James Anderson had a dream test match against Pakistan in 2010 where he got 11 wickets in total in the test match and this staggering bowling performance of 6/17 came in the second innings of this test match and before this he had already picked up 5 wickets in the first innings and Pakistan were chasing a big total to win in the fourth Innings and they were bowled out for a paltry score of 80 runs in the last innings and Jimmy Anderson took 6 out of the 10 wickets in this innings. It is one of his all time great bowling performances. James Anderson took the Wickets of Imran Farhat, Umar Akmal, Shoaib Malik and others; he bowled 15 overs and only gave away 17 runs at 1.13 runs per over.

6/40 vs Sri Lanka (2021)

This incredible bowling performance by Jimmy Anderson came just last year when he was in his later stages of his career and it came in Sri Lanka so the people who say that he cannot bowl in overseas conditions should take a look at this performance and then should stay quiet because no one takes over 640 test wickets without being great overseas. This was in the first innings of this test match and Sri Lanka were going very well untill Jimmy Anderson decided to do something about it and do something he did as he got 6 wickets in this innings. James Anderson bowled 29.3 overs in this innings and at 1.38 runs per over he took 6 Wickets. He got the Wickets of Lahiru Thirumane, Kusal Perera, Angelo Mathews among others. England won the match by 6 Wickets.

5/23 vs South Africa (2009): James Anderson Best Bowling Figures in ODI

Although Jimmy Anderson is best known for his exploits in test cricket it would not be fair if we don’t include his best ever ODI bowling performance in this article and this came against South Africa in 2009 in a low scoring match. South Africa were batting first in this ODI match and Jimmy Anderson ripped then apart and the South African batters had no answer to his bowling and they could only make 119 runs and England chased it down with ease and they won by 7 Wickets. He also has an ODI 5 wicket haul to his name. He is one of the best fast bowlers of all time. James Anderson gave away 2.3 runs per over and he took the Wickets of Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Mark Boucher among others.