Jimmy’s bowled over by Aussies’ respect for him
James anderson sounded almost wistful as he reflected on the prospect of his fifth Test match at adelaide, a ground he regards as his favourite away from the rather greener grass of home.
Passed over for the ashes opener at Brisbane as england looked to manage their seam-bowling resources across five tightly packed matches, anderson was due to return to Joe root’s attack for the second of them, starting last night.
The prospect of adding to his c.v. at a venue where four previous Tests spread across 15 years had brought him 16 wickets at 29 even threatened to elicit a smile.
It has often seemed anderson has not been every australian’s favourite cricketer, but the widespread hue and cry in these parts after his omission at the Gabba hinted at a hidden affection. If his Test record on australian soil — 60 wickets at 35 — has often been used against him, then his overall haul of 632, the best in Test history, has added up to a grudging respect.
Anderson described the reaction from australia’s players to his absence from the first Test as a nice surprise, but added: ‘I’m sure they’re not going to say nice things to me this week.’
There was, though, no better place to reintroduce him to Test cricket in this country than adelaide. It was here, in 2010-11, that he got england off to a sensational start, removing ricky Ponting for a duck and michael Clarke for two as the hosts staggered to two for three en route to an innings defeat.
It was also here, four years ago, that anderson collected his only five-wicket haul in australia. and before all that, way back in January 2003 — aged 20 and yet to win a Test cap — he returned remarkable figures of 10-6-12-1 in a one-day international there against the australians.
In those days, the adelaide oval had a quaintly english feel, with st Peter’s Cathedral visible across Pennington Terrace and australia’s most famous manual scoreboard adding to the sense of another era.
now, after several years of redevelopment aimed at upping capacity to more than 53,000 to create a home for aussie rules football, it is more like a stadium — though the grassy northern mound, moreton Bay fig trees and scoreboard are heritagelisted and remain, thankfully, untouched.
‘It’s my favourite ground outside the UK,’ said anderson. ‘It’s changed since I first played here, but I’ve always enjoyed it. The atmosphere is great, people love their cricket in adelaide and the stuff they’ve done to the ground is fantastic. all the guys love playing here.’
anderson, 39, is old enough to have taken part in another memorable adelaide encounter in 2006-07, when andrew Flintoff declared england’s first innings at 551 for six, but somehow ended up on the losing side after shane Warne spun his magic on the final day. australia went on to win 5-0.
ahead of his fifth Test outing here — making adelaide his most frequented overseas venue — anderson tried to explain the art of pink-ball bowling under lights. It can be an inexact science. In november 2019, australian opener david Warner scored 335 not out in a day-night Test here against Pakistan. a little more than a year later, India’s galacticos were bowled out for 36.
‘The pink ball is temperamental,’ said anderson. ‘It’s not a given that it will swing round corners or seam. It’s generally a good pitch here, and if the sun is out it won’t do a great deal.
‘at twilight or under lights it might do a bit more. It’s trying to take advantage of those periods.’