Sachin Tendulkar hails James Anderson’s ‘reverse swing’ abilities

New Delhi: Sachin Tendulkar believes James Anderson is the only bowler who could bowl a ‘reverse outswinger’. James Anderson did so with a wrist position of a conventional inswinger. Sachin Tendulkar has termed that ‘reverse’ reverse swing.

Tendulkar’s explanation

Tendulkar was speaking to West Indies legend Brian Lara on his ‘100MB’ app. He explained why Anderson could be vital for England in the ongoing Test against West Indies at the Ageas Bowl.

“With reverse swing, Jimmy Anderson was possibly the first bowler who bowled reverse swing also reverse,” Tendulkar told Lara.

In lucid terms, in case of conventional inswing to a right hander, the shiny part is on the outside and rough part on the inside. In case of reverse outswinger, the trajectory changes (moving away from right hander) but shiny part will still remain on outward side. The wrist position is different on both occasions.

Unique wrist action

According to the Indian icon, when he checked Anderson’s wrist position, he saw him bowling the reverse outswinger. However, the wrist position was of conventional inswinger, which is unheard of.

“What I experienced, over a period of time was that he (Anderson) would hold the ball as if he was bowling outswinger. But at the release point, he would try and bring the ball back in. “A number of batters would look at the wrist position and then expect an inswinger. However, the imbalance between both sides of the ball would take the ball away from you,” added Tendulkar.

Forcing batsman to commit

Tendulkar said by changing his wrist position quickly Anderson forces the batsman to commit to a shot. “What he has done is, he’s got you to commit to play, for an inswinger. The ball, after covering almost three-fourths of the length of the pitch, starts leaving you. But you had already committed, because you’ve seen that inswing position. That is something which was new to me. Nobody had done that,” said Tendulkar.

Anderson the trendsetter

Tendulkar said several bowlers including Stuart Broad have started using the same trick to trouble the opposition. However, it was Anderson who started the trend.

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“Now number of guys, you see their shine, and what they’re trying to do. I spotted even Stuart Broad trying to do that at some stage. But Anderson started this long time ago. So I rate him very highly. One of the best exponents of reverse swing,” Tendulkar pointed out.

Anderson is England”s leading wicket-taker in Test cricket with 871 international wickets to his name.