James Anderson
England's veteran pacer James Anderson on Wednesday matched ex-skipper Alastair Cook in the elusive list of most Test caps for the Three Lions.
The 38-year-old pacer made his 161st Test appearance for England as they took on New Zealand in the first match of the two-Test rubber. Anderson is now jointly tied with Cook in the list of players who have played most Tests in their career.
Sachin Tendulkar (200) is first on the list, followed by the Australian duo of Ricky Ponting (168) and Steve Waugh (168). South Africa's Jacques Kallis (166), West Indies dasher S Chanderpaul (164), and India's Rahul Dravid (164) are the next three names.
Ahead of the Test against New Zealand at Lord's, Anderson had said that he had never imagined reaching the milestone, describing the achievement a 'mind-blowing' one.
“I never imagined in a million years I’d get to this point. Certainly for a bowler to play this amount of games is... I don’t know what the word is. But it’s a bit mind-blowing to me.
“I feel really honoured that I’ve managed to do it because it’s such an amazing thing to do. I absolutely love Test cricket. I’ve got a huge passion for it. Growing up, all I wanted to do is play Test cricket for England and I’m honoured I’ve been able to do it for this long," Anderson told ESPNCricinfo.
Anderson is also eight wickets away from completing 1000 wickets in first-class cricket.
“In this day and age I don’t know if it’s possible to get that many first-class wickets any more. With the amount of cricket that’s played, there doesn’t seem to be that longevity in bowlers any more, and there’s loads of T20 cricket and whatever else going on around the world. It feels a lot," he said.
