England pacer James Anderson created history on Thursday as he became England’s most capped player in the five-day format in what was his 162nd appearance for The Three Lions. Anderson went past former England captain Alastair Cook, who had represented his team in 161 Tests.
Ahead of the start of the first day’s place between England and New Zealand, Anderson was also felicitated for achieving the milestone.
The player to have represented a country in the most number of Tests is legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who played 200 Tests for India in his decorated career. Tendulkar is followed by Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting (168 each), Jacques Kallis (165), and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (164).
Among England players, after Anderson and Cook, Anderson’s seam partner Stuart Broad is ranked third with 148 Tests to his name followed by former England cricketers Alec Stewart and Ian Bell.
England’s top 5 capped players in Tests
| Name | Tests |
| James Anderson | 162 |
| Alastair Cook | 161 |
| Stuart Broad | 148 |
| Alec Stewart | 138 |
| Ian Bell | 118 |
One of the finest pacers in world cricket, Anderson has another record to his name where he is the only pacer in world cricket to have taken 600 Test wickets.
Having made his debut in 2003 against Zimbabwe at Lord’s, Anderson recently said he thought he wasn’t good enough.
“I thought I wasn’t good enough. I thought it was a huge step up from county cricket. I remember Nasser [Hussain] didn’t have a fine leg for me and I went for quite a few runs. My first ball was a no-ball as well so there were a lot of nerves there and I did feel like this was maybe a step too far for me at that point,” he said as reported by ESPNcricinfo.
Like every pacer, Anderson’s career has also witnessed several ups and downs which have made him stronger.
“I’m proud of the fact that I’ve overcome little hurdles throughout my career and they’ve made me stronger,” he said. “The stress fracture was like hitting the re-set button I guess. I’d gone through a lot of changes in my action before that and that stress fracture was probably a Godsend. It made me go back to my old action and since then I’ve felt really comfortable and got more consistent. That’s really helped me and makes me feel proud I got stronger from that and never looked back.”
