Jimmy Anderson, leading pace wicket taker

Jimmy turns 33 tomorrow. If he keeps on keeping on we can anticipate that he will surpass Glenn McGrath's 563 while he is 36 years old.
I would think his only rival for this record might be Steyn.

I suppose the question is, would Jimmy still want to be playing Test Cricket til he is 36? I'm sure the knee will nag at him more and more.

Who knows.

Will he still want to do it.

Will his body still be up to it.

At some point the bowler's particular mojo just goes and you can quickly turn from being a demon into cannon fodder (I'm reminded of Dizzy in '05 Ashes).

England have a tough run of cricket in the next year or so. I think that'll probably finish him off.

Especially if the ECB keep serving up featherbeds to protect their wickle batsmen from the nasty fast bowlers.

These days he tends to follow a good test with a very bad test and vice versa. Not sure his heart will really be in it anymore beyond this Ashes series. I certainly can't imagine him looking forward to going to the UAE over the Winter.....

I have a feeling this Ashes series will be it for him.

There's a tour of SA on the horizon - he'll stick around for that, I reckon.

No way will he retire early - he'll have to be pushed... ODIs are the indicator for this

Maybe he'll go on. But I wouldn't take him to the UAE. Save him for the South Africa series.

I also wouldn't have him anywhere near the ODI side again, regardless of his red ball form.

Nor would I. Not only because Tests take precedence, but because he's shithouse filth at ODI cricket

I was starting to think he was approaching "Hoggard point" where the selectors just decide he's lost that zip at the highest level... but then he proves that when the ball swings, there's still nobody better at bowling those clusterbombs of high jaffery.

There's no obvious direct successor on the horizon, either. Just tall/bang-it-in bowlers taking up the next few places on the rank.

Whilst I can see Jimmy reaching the 500 club, I've a feeling tgms record may just be out of reach for him. As for his successor, I'd go a step further than beamer - who rightly says there's essentially no similar bowler on the horizon. Time has shown Jimmy to be a once in a couple of generations bowler. The next one with his mastery of swing & seam is prolly still in short kecks, if he's even been born yet.

As a comparison ......... how many "New Bothams" have we had, and still not found him? Closest we've come is Freddie, who was born the year the Beefmeister made his test debut. Even then, Fred was only ever barely half the batsman Beefy was, and only as good a bowler the latter part of his career.

If McGraths 563 record is to be beaten, it will be by Dale Steyn. Taips pointed out on the milestones thread that DS has just got his 400th. He has done that in 20 tests fewer than Jimmy, and is about a year younger. Not forgetting the small matter of the difference in S/R ........ 41.6 against Jimmys 57.7.

There's no question they're the two outstanding bowlers of this generation, but as someone who always felt Anderson could be an England legend - even I can't argue with the record books, which will ultimately show Steyn to be the better one by a small margin.

Closer to 25 tests Growls, but it is age that will be the problem for both of them.

South Africa don't play enough test cricket for Steyn to challenge Mcgrath's record.

True on the face of it, Trev - but on the other hand, he could possibly go on a couple of years longer than Jimmy, who is flogged to death by comparison.

Another 4 years taking 35 wickets gets him within spitting distance. If SA play only 5 tests/year he'd need to average 3.5 wickets per innings. Since they usually play at least 7 or 8 in a calendar year, the record is still possible IMHO.

SA have 8 coming up in the next few months.