Root hails Anderson England’s greatest player

Joe Root hailed James Anderson as the greatest England cricketer of all time after an inspired spell of reverse-swing bowling helped Root’s team to secure one of their finest Test wins.

James Anderson bowled England to victory against India with a devastating spell of reverse swing

Joe Root hailed James Anderson as the greatest England cricketer of all time after an inspired spell of reverse-swing bowling helped Root’s team to secure one of their finest Test wins.

Anderson, 38, took three key wickets for six runs in a five-over spell that pushed England towards an emphatic 227-run victory in the first Test against India in Chennai. It was only the hosts’ second defeat in their past 36 Tests on home soil.

“He’s the Goat (greatest of all time) of English cricket,” Root said of the bowler who stands fourth on the list of leading Test wicket-takers with 611 in 158 matches. “He’s finding ways of challenging himself and he’s getting better all the time. I can’t think of a better over (than the one Anderson bowled in which he dismissed Shubman Gill and Ajinkya Rahane) in my time for England.

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“It reminded me of (Andrew) Flintoff in the 2005 Ashes, the impact of that over to (Ricky) Ponting and (Justin) Langer. In the context of this game, Anderson’s over was huge.”

Anderson, who is expected to be rested for the second Test, which starts on Saturday, to make way for Stuart Broad, said he took special pleasure from removing the off stump from the ground twice during his wondrous over.

He said: “It is always nice to see stumps cartwheeling because it doesn’t happen very often at my age. I got lucky with the bounce on a few of them but it got us off to good start. The reverse-swing was huge for us. The pitch wasn’t quick but that movement in the air makes it so much better for us seamers, it makes you feel like you can get a wicket with any ball.”

Root said England’s win vindicated his decision not to declare on the fourth day. Shane Warne was among those who said England should have given themselves more time rather than setting India a record target of 420.

Root, who was man of the match for his first-innings 218, said: “It (the decision to bat on) was to try to make sure there were only two outcomes possible. Having spent more time than anyone else on that wicket I had an idea as to how it might deteriorate.

“Our bowlers delivered brilliantly and we ended up with so much time in the game that it worked out perfectly.”

Virat Kohli, who has lost four Tests in a row as captain, is under extra pressure to oversee a fightback in the four-match series. In mitigation, the India captain expressed disappointment with the pitch and the newly modified SG ball, which had a more pronounced seam than previous batches.

“The pitch was very flat and slow,” he said. “I’m not saying that as an excuse but you have to understand the reality. That was the case in the first two days. Even day three when the wicket started to change, before that it was flat. The quality of the ball too was not something we were very pleased to see. The ball seemed to be destroyed in 60 overs.”

Kohli did, though, add that “England played better cricket than us and deserved to win”.

“I don’t think there was enough application by us as a batting unit. The Test shifted in their favour when we batted in the first innings. We need to be a lot more focused and understand that Test victories have to be earned — nothing is a given either home or away.”

THE TIMES