He is being bashed because he inst very good. He isnt as good a bowler as he was 5 years ago and he will do nothing but struggle in the long term in Test cricket.
I disagree, Anderson along with Harmison & Jones is easily one of those most naturally talented fast bowlers England have produced post Gough/Caddick & as i keep saying his test career as been interrupted by injuries etc let me give a run down of his career to date since i believe based on how you blokes can bold to say 1``he isnt very good`` lets take a walk back in time on the James Anderson journey..
- thrown into the deep in Aus in VB series 2002/03 as a raw 20 year old who hadn't played much lancashire and was basically playing his cricket for club but left with encouraging peformances i.e his superb spell of 10-12-1 in adelaide. Goes to the WC & has a superb tournament namely wrecking PAK in capetown.
- continues his superb start by wrecking the awful zimbabwe at home & many began to hail as the next great english fast-bowling hope. The South African's came to town & on some overall flat decks againts where he was almost the leader of a young average attack againts some flat-track bullys was brought down back to earth. Goes on tour to BAG & SRI is injured for most of tour plays one test in alien conditions does poorly. Which begins his plagued journey for the next 4 1/2 years.
- watches the entire tour of the WI & home series vs NZ on the sidelines, plays a few few county matches (dont know how much but valuable time there for him would have been interrupted given international commitments in the ODI arena). Get to play vs WI but is relatively unused in 3 test as Harmo/Giles/Hoggard & an injured Flintoff is used by Vaughan. Thus his season is wasted when he could have been at Lancashire properly learnning his trade to become a better in the long form of the game.
- goes to SA underbowled thrown into the crucial Jo'Burg test bowls poorly & spends the rest of the tour on the bench.
- Played no test or ODI's during the famous 2005 summer but had his 1st full county season where he did
pretty well thus earning a call up for the 5th test @ the Oval & tour rights to Pakistan.
- Understandably overlooked for the test in PAK, but played in the ODI's has he continued to prove why along with Flintoff he was one of Englad's better modern day ODI bowlers. Went to India again overlooked for the test until Mumbai where he produced
this which wasn't bad for a man who had spent most of that winter on the bench.
- Then just when the injury crisis began to get ugly & many would have been hoping Anderson would have gotten a good run in the side vs SRI & PAK he himself was a victim until late in the season until he played a few county games for Lancashire thus another season wasted.
- With the injury crisis very bad, having played a few conty games and 3 ODI's in the CT. Thrown into the Ashes series without playing a test for 8 months & is roughed up by the mighty Aussies.
- Continues his solid ODI bowling performances in the CB series through the WC. Injuries or another bowler being preffered can't remember exactly misses the WI test but comes back to have a very good encouraging test series vs IND (although many here reckoned he was poor). Tops that off with another solid ODI series performance agains them as well.
- Goes to SRI does poorly in conditions that he is alien to & has an average ODI series & to was awful in NZ to complete his first full year of international since his 2002/03 explosion.
All of this says that Anderson is a very talented bowler who was exposed way too early. When he could have been learning his trade in county cricket he has had to learn it at the highest level which has been pretty rough for him. His best years in test IMO are very much ahead of him just needs to stay fit & perform because the ability is very much there.