James Anderson
England·Bowler·Age 44
Left-hand bat · Right-arm fast medium
Career
James Anderson took more Test wickets than any fast bowler in history and played international cricket into his forties. His method was built on control of swing in both directions from an identical action, and on a wrist position so consistent that batters could not read the ball out of the hand.
He was at his most dangerous with a new ball in English conditions, but the second half of his career was defined by learning to take wickets where the ball does not move — in Asia, using reverse swing and a wobble seam he added in his mid-thirties. He retired from Test cricket in 2024.
Highlights
- Leading wicket-taker among fast bowlers in Test history
- Played Test cricket into his forties
- Formed the most prolific new-ball partnership in English cricket with Stuart Broad
- Added the wobble-seam delivery in his mid-thirties to succeed overseas
Overview
What the figures show
The Ashes record holds James Anderson at 112 wickets from 35 Tests, each costing 33.76.
The best of those returns are 6/47 in an innings and 10/158 in a match, with five five-wicket hauls among them.
International
Career record
| Format | M | Inns | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 182 | 258 | 1,290 | 81 | 8.66 | 39.2 | 0 | 1 |
| ODI | 179 | 73 | 254 | 28 | 7.70 | 51.0 | 0 | 0 |
| T20I | 19 | 4 | 1 | 1* | 1.00 | 50.0 | 0 | 0 |
The Ashes
Australia versus England
James Anderson’s record in Ashes Tests, from 2006-2022. Every Ashes series and record.
| Ashes bowling | M | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Avg | Econ | 5w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-2022 | 35 | 112 | 6/47 | 10/158 | 33.76 | 2.95 | 5 |
Articles
Articles about James Anderson
Questions
About James Anderson
How many Ashes wickets has James Anderson taken?
James Anderson has taken 112 wickets in 35 Ashes Tests between 2006-2022 at 33.76 apiece, with best figures of 6/47 in an innings.
What is James Anderson's playing style?
James Anderson is a left-hand bat who bowls right-arm fast medium, listed as a bowler.
How many Test wickets does James Anderson have?
More than any other fast bowler in the history of Test cricket — he is third on the all-time list behind two spinners.
What makes James Anderson's bowling distinctive?
He swings the ball both ways from an identical action and wrist position, so the batter gets no early clue which way it will move.
When did James Anderson retire?
He played his final Test in July 2024 at Lord's, after more than two decades in the England side.
Also on CricketTaken
Players alongside James Anderson
Team-mates from this player's IPL seasons first, then others from the same country.
How this page was worked out
Where these figures come from
Sources for this profile
- Ashes figures compiled from published Test match records, not from ball-by-ball data.
- International figures computed from Cricsheet ball-by-ball data, used under the Open Data Commons Attribution License 1.0.
- Date of birth, playing style and photograph come from a third-party player feed, matched by name.
How the numbers are derived
- A wide is not a ball faced; a no ball is.
- Byes and leg byes are not charged to the bowler; wides and no balls are.
- Six kinds of dismissal are credited to a bowler. A run out is not one of them.
- An average is runs over dismissals, and is left blank rather than shown as infinite.
- Every rule in full →
What this page does not cover
- Only the competitions named above. A record elsewhere in this player’s career is not counted here and is not implied by these totals.
- Ball-by-ball coverage of Test cricket begins in 2001 and of ODIs in 2002.
- A figure here that looks wrong is worth reporting — how to report it.