Anderson - Last of a dying breed

When it came, it came as so many have come before. James Anderson, making something happen, finding something extra, something England's other bowlers had been unable to find. A bit more bounce on a pitch which had hardly been bouncing. Just a hint of seam movement in to the batsman on a pitch which had offered nothing of the sort on day four. Azhar Ali's attempted cut shot was morphed into a too-close-to-prod prod. Caught at first slip. It took Anderson into Test cricket's 600 club. Only the true greats are allowed in there.

All those wickets have not just fallen into Anderson's lap. Like all fast-bowlers, he has had to break his back for them, strain every sinew for them, work and work and work for them. He has played 156 Test matches so far. Only seven others in the history of the game have played more and none of them were frontline fast-bowlers. At the time of his 600th wicket, Anderson had delivered 5,619.5 overs in Test cricket, the most by any fast bowler in the game's history. That's 33,717 balls. Thirty three thousand, seven hundred and seventeen balls. Next on the list is Courtney Walsh who is more than 3,000 deliveries behind. These numbers are the real measure of Anderson the bowler. These numbers are incredible.

Anderson and Broad are the last of a dying breed. Their type of fast-bowling longevity will become extinct when they eventually retire. The sort of long Test careers they have had were more common in the past. Before them came the likes of Glenn McGrath and Walsh, Kapil Dev and Sir Richard Hadlee, Sir Ian Botham and Imran Khan. The Test careers of all of those players spanned at least 15 years. That was not uncommon in the eighties, nineties and noughties where less international cricket was played and there were two formats, not three, reducing the toll on fast-bowlers' bodies.

That is not the case now, of course. For England, India and Australia in particular, the international calendar is packed with all formats. When there is not international cricket to be played, there is T20 franchise tournaments to take part in almost all year round. For the very best of the current generation of quicks who play all formats - think Pat Cummins, Kagiso Rabada, Jasprit Bumrah - there is hardly any time off. As such, their careers are likely to be shorter, if fuller, and they are more likely to retire from Test cricket earlier to play a few more seasons in T20 competitions.

For any fast-bowler to reach Anderson and Broad's longevity, they would have to enter the Test match arena young, for a country that plays a good amount of matches each year - so basically Australia, England or India - continually eschew the rewards of the T20 franchise circuit, and probably specialise in the Test format altogether, and retain fitness, form and desire across a 15 year Test career. That's before you even consider having the necessary skill. In theory, it could still be done. In practice, it would be wise not to hold your breath.

The perennial debate about where Anderson fits in the pantheon of Test greats will go on. He is undoubtedly one of them, of course. A true great of the game. But where does he rank