James Anderson overtakes Kumble to become 3rd highest wicket-taker in Test

England fast bowler James Anderson on Friday overtook Anil Kumble to become the 3rd highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. On Day 3 of the ongoing first Test against India, Anderson picked up the crucial wicket of KL Rahul (84), breaking the latter’s 60-run partnership with Ravindra Jadeja. This wicket took Anderson’s overall tally to 620 in his 163rd match.

Anderson also picked up the wickets of Cheteshwar Pujara and India captain Virat Kohli off successive deliveries on Thursday, bringing his side back into the series opener and putting the opposition under pressure.

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With Kohli’s wicket, Anderson equaled Kumble’s tally of 619 Test wickets. Former Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan leads the list with 800 Test wickets followed by Australian bowler Shane Warne with 708 scalps.

After dismissing Kohli for a first ball duck on Day 2 on Thursday, the 39-year-old said it was “unusual” to get the Indian skipper out that early.

“I feel like I’ve challenged Virat in that area before. He either played or missed or left it. He’s always been good enough to sort of get through and today it was just one of those days where he nicked it. Getting Kohli out that early was quite unusual,” Anderson told the reporters at the end of day’s play.

“He’s such a big wicket. To bowl the ball exactly where I wanted it to and for him to nick it as well. It was just an outpouring of emotions to get the team back into the game. Getting their best player out is something that doesn’t happen all that often.” he added. 

He went to say that the strategy was to bowl on the fourth stump line that worked well as he picked up the wickets of Pujara and Kohli off successive deliveries.

“To be honest it’s not really something that we thought about too much, particularly to him. What we try to do as a group is trying to challenge that fourth stump area, the defence as much as possible. Obviously to get a couple of quick ones like that is really important, especially with Virat being such an influential player for them. Always good to get him early,” he said.