Sachin Tendulkar reveals James Anderson’s reverse swing trickery

No batsman has scored more runs in Test cricket than Sachin Tendulkar. No fast bowler has taken more Test wickets than James Anderson. The batting legend took out time to offer his insights on Anderson who is currently playing in his 152nd Test match. The English bowler holds the privilege of dismissing Tendulkar on most occasions in Test matches. While discussing the ongoing England-West Indies Test series, the Indian batsman spoke about how Anderson troubled him in a unique way.

“With reverse swing, Jimmy Anderson was possibly the first bowler who bowled reverse swing also reverse. What I experienced, over a period of time that he would hold the ball as if he was bowling an outswinger, but [at] the release point, he would try and bring the ball back in, and [a] number of batters would look at the wrist position, and what he has actually done, he’s shown you that he’s bowling inswing, but the imbalance between both sides of the ball would take the ball away from you,” Tendulkar said.

The batsman further added, “What he has done is, he’s got you to commit to play, for an [inswinger], and the ball, after covering almost three-fourths of the length of the pitch, starts leaving you. But you had already committed [to play], because you’ve seen that inswing position, and that is something which was new to me. Nobody had done that.”

According to the theories of swing bowling, the conventional swing is considered to be the one where ball swings in the opposite direction of the shiny side of the ball. The ball is said to be reverse swinging when the ball moves in the same direction of the shiny side. According to Tendulkar, Anderson managed to bowl a reverse-swinging outswinger despite having the wrist position set for a conventional inswinger.