New Zealand tour of England 2021

02 Jun 2021

Veteran fast bowler James Anderson equalled former captain Alastair Cook's record of most Test matches played for England on Wednesday. Anderson is making his 161st Test appearance for England in their first match against New Zealand at Lord's.

Lord's was also the venue where 38-year-old Anderson made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in May 2003, three years before Cook played his first match in the longest format of the game. Anderson took five wickets in the first innings of the match thus helping England win the match by an innings and 92 runs. Notably, Anderson is also the only pacer to feature in 150-plus Test matches.

Cook, who captained Anderson in 49 Tests, retired from international cricket in September 2018.

"For a bowler to play this amount of games, I don't know what the word is, but it's a bit mind-blowing to me," Anderson was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

With 614 wickets, Anderson is England's all-time highest Test wicket taker and the first fast bowler to take more than 600 wickets in the format.

England have a busy Test schedule ahead of them which includes a five-Test series against India leading up to the Ashes at the end of the year.

"I'd love to play all seven Tests this summer. There are five Tests against India after these two Tests against New Zealand, and then the Ashes after that. So, we want to start this summer well. So hopefully, if we do pick our strongest team we (Anderson and Stuart Broad) would like to think that we're both in that. And we'd love to share the new ball together, yes," Anderson had said ahead of the first Test match against New Zealand.