Fast bowlers hunt in pairs and for England there can never be a better example in recent times than that of the superb exponents of seam and swing duo in James Anderson-Stuart Broad. They have taken 507 wickets in 69 Test matches.
Second placed is the good old pair of Fred Trueman and Brian Statham (284 wickets in35 matches). Steve Harmison-Matthew Hoggard bagged 266 wickets in 33 matches. They are followed by Andrew Caddick and Darren Gough with 196 wickets in 26 matches and Ian Botham and Bob Willis 172 wickets in 24 matches.
Anderson has already played 119 Test matches (May 22, 2003 to August 14, 2016) and his partner Broad will play his 100th Test match at Rajkot.
Splendid featOnly 12 Englishmen have achieved this splendid feat; there are Anderson (119), Ian Botham (102), Graham Gooch (118), Kevin Pietersen (104), Geoffrey Boycott (108), Michael Atherton (115), Alastair Cook (135), David Gower (117) Ian Bell (118), Graham Thorpe (100), Alec Stewart (133) and Colin Cowdrey (114).
While Anderson has missed 53 Test matches because of injury or otherwise, Broad has missed only 13. Anderson who has endured nagging injury issues, has not recovered from a shoulder ailment and was not included in the team announced on October 26 for the five-Test series in India.
Anderson, who has taken 82 wickets against India, is at the Loughborough University for fitness tests. There is speculation that he may join the team either at Rajkot or Visakhapatnam. “We will know that in the next 24 hours,’’ said Danny Reuben, head of team communications, ECB.
