Jimmy Anderson has really cemented his title as The King of Swing by becoming the first fast bowler to get to 600 wickets which will make him part of Cricket folklore. His accomplishments, especially his longevity will be discussed alongside a whole bunch of statistics with people exalting as well as underpinning what he has done. He has played more Tests than Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne and Anil Kumble to get to his 600 wickets but missed out on being the fastest to 600 by seven balls which he could have accomplished this summer itself if the slip cordon was better.

I wrote a post where I was considering Jimmy Anderson as my benchmark for fast bowlers just as I have done for batsmen using Tendulkar and Don Bradman. The reason for using Tendulkar and Bradman is due to the reason that the batting points scored by Tendulkar are mammoth while Bradman cannot be ignored because of the rate at which he has scored the number of runs he did. The fast bowling equivalent of this would be using Dale Steyn and Jimmy Anderson although Kagiso Rabada may end up replacing Steyn if he is able to play as many Tests as Steyn has done. The other reason I have not used Rabada is that he has not played 50 Tests and I am of the belief that the minimum number of innings that a bowler should play more innings than that of a batsman. The minimum requirement for bowlers should be 90 innings, which I think is the equivalent of the 75 innings that I have placed on batsmen.

I would love to hear your view and do watch this space because the official Anderson-Steyn Benchmark will be published shortly!