Jimmy Anderson

[trundler]

Anderson is obviously well clear of Alderman. He's not great but he's no flash in the pan either. But is he ahead of Willis and Snow?

 

[vcs]

Yeah, the most comparable guy is Philander but he was made of glass and played about 2.5x fewer tests. Anderson has obvious limitations which means he's clearly below say, Pollock but he's done well enough long enough to be ahead of any other bowler oh his kind.

Where does Anderson stand relative to Statham, Willis, and Gillespie? Would imagine they're fairly representative of what ATVG can mean.

Better than all of them in my book. There is a pretty massive gap between 250-300 wickets and 600 wickets and marginal average differences are more than made up for by the longevity points that Anderson gets.

 

[honestbharani]

Him staying fit for this long, by itself, is such a big service to his team too. Like if it was that easy to do what Anderson, and to take an earlier example, Kapil did, more people would be doing it.

 

[vcs]

The thing I actually dont understand at all is why Anderson is seemingly rated so much higher than Broad. Broad's acknowledged as a really good but not quite truly great bowler but Anderson despite having only marginally better numbers is considered as good as Courtney Walsh by some people? Its really odd.

We can have that conversation if that **** Broad is still knocking around in 3-4 years time, which no doubt he will be.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Better than all of them in my book. There is a pretty massive gap between 250-300 wickets and 600 wickets and marginal average differences are more than made up for by the longevity points that Anderson gets.

The gap in number of wickets is largely down to England simply playing more tests compared to in the 70s/80s (Willis played 15 years of test cricket for example). It'd be like saying Cook is better than Boycott because he scored 4000 more runs. Not an entirely invalid opinion but the reasoning is flimsy imo.

He's definitely better than Gillespie though

 

[vcs]

That's fair, I didn't know Willis was around that long

 

[Groundking]

The thing I actually dont understand at all is why Anderson is seemingly rated so much higher than Broad. Broad's acknowledged as a really good but not quite truly great bowler but Anderson despite having only marginally better numbers is considered as good as Courtney Walsh by some people? Its really odd.

Broad has only ever had 3 years with a bowling average sub 25, Jimmy has done so 8 times...

 

[harsh.ag]

Better than Statham and Willis, but I'd have Gilliespie over him. He did well everywhere except, for some reason, in SL and NZ (small sample sizes though)

 

[trundler]

Statham briefly held the record for most wickets in tests. When Willis retired he wasn't far behind Lillee either. Similarly, Boycott took over from Sobers as the most prolific run scorer in tests. All of those guys were playing an insane number of FC games so it's not like they had lighter workloads. Anderson has played about 2/3rds of the tests played in his career. Hadlee and Walsh missed comparatively fewer tests so it's not Anderson's durability is something that's in a league of its own.

 

[Adders]

Yet you get guys like Vaughan calling Anderson England's best ever bowler.

Here's the crux of this problem right here. Incredible that anyone could take anything seriously that MV says, but yet they do. A POS like him says JA is England's greatest bowler and all of a sudden Jimmy is vastly overated and every England's cricket fan is of the same opinion.

Its Micheal Vaughan ffs.

 

[Pothas]

Anderson is obviously well clear of Alderman. He's not great but he's no flash in the pan either. But is he ahead of Willis and Snow?

Yeah he is ahead of both now surely. Post-war for England it is only Trueman who is clearly better.

 

[OverratedSanity]

A POS like him says JA is England's greatest bowler and all of a sudden Jimmy is vastly operated

Wait I thought Jimmy's endurance and fitness were supposed to be great

 

[harsh.ag]

Here's the crux of this problem right here. Incredible that anyone could take anything seriously that MV says, but yet they do. A POS like him says JA is England's greatest bowler and all of a sudden Jimmy is vastly overated and every England's cricket fan is of the same opinion.

Its Micheal Vaughan ffs.

We have some ex-cricketers including him in their teams of the decade and of the 21st century. That's where the overratedness comes through

 

[honestbharani]

I honestly do not think there is any set number of "greats" in cricket. To me, calling someone a "great" cricketer is only based on his/her performances. The whole relative ranking and comparisons only really matter when we are discussing if someone is an ATG.

 

[honestbharani]

We have some ex-cricketers including him in their teams of the decade and of the 21st century.

I think he averages 24 for the 2010s decade. Who else would you have in there? Cummins was hardly around for 4 years of that period, Rabada perhaps the only other contender?

 

[Groundking]

Statham briefly held the record for most wickets in tests. When Willis retired he wasn't far behind Lillee either. Similarly, Boycott took over from Sobers as the most prolific run scorer in tests. All of those guys were playing an insane number of FC games so it's not like they had lighter workloads. Anderson has played about 2/3rds of the tests played in his career. Hadlee and Walsh missed comparatively fewer tests so it's not Anderson's durability is something that's in a league of its own.

I'd assume that the mental and physical efforts of playing at the very top level vs the level below is higher as a quality bowler can more easily bowl within themselves and still get quality results at a lower level.

 

[harsh.ag]

I think he averages 24 for the 2010s decade. Who else would you have in there? Cummins was hardly around for 4 years of that period, Rabada perhaps the only other contender?

Steyn, Cummins, and Rabada. Cummins debuted in 2011 against South Africa, got a 6-fer in the 3rd innings, got MotM, and was subsequently dropped till 2017

 

[Adders]

We have some ex-cricketers including him in their teams of the decade and of the 21st century. That's where the overratedness comes through

Wtf? How would he not make a team of the decade mate?

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Anderson has played about 2/3rds of the tests played in his career.

Is this right? and if so isn't it slightly weirded out by that most of the Tests he missed wasn't for "managing workload" reasons, but because he was picked on potential early, given taster Tests against things like an Andy Flower-less Zimbabwe, and sent down to county for a few years?

 

[Adders]

Steyn, Cummins, and Rabada. Cummins debuted in 2011 against South Africa, got a 6-fer in the 3rd innings, got MotM, and was subsequently dropped till 2017

Have a spell mate.