James Anderson Reveals the Indian Pacer from Whom He Learned Reverse Swing

England pacer James Anderson has revealed that he learned the art of reverse swing from the former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan, who used to be the king of swing back in his early days.

“For me, Zaheer Khan was someone I used to watch a lot to try and learn from. How he used the reverse swing, how he covered the ball when he ran into bowl, that’s something I tried to sort of develop on the back of playing against him quite a few times here,” Anderson told JioCinema.

Zaheer Khan, hailed as one of India’s premier seam bowlers, retired from Test cricket in 2014 during Anderson’s peak. Among today’s Indian pacers, Anderson particularly admires Jasprit Bumrah‘s for his ability of making the ball reverse swing.

“With someone of Bumrah’s quality you expect that standard from him. You know that reverse swing can play a big part in India and he’s a great exponent of it. He’s got good pace and is very accurate, very consistent.”

“That yorker we saw to Ollie Pope, he’s got that up his sleeve as well. It’s not a fluke that he’s got to number one in the world. He’s a world-class bowler and from our point of view we weren’t surprised that he put up a performance like that.”

Anderson’s enduring career is exemplified by the fact that his current England colleagues like Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed hadn’t even entered the world when he first stepped onto the Test stage in 2002.