Zak is better than Jimmy Anderson – Ishant Sharma makes massive remark on former India fast bowling ace

Back in 2011, with all the praises being showered on Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh, two of India’s chief architects of the memorable World Cup triumph, there was another unsung hero of the side who delivered consistently and even in the final applied a momentous squeeze on the Lankan top-order that forced them into a cautious approach at least for the first 20 overs of the innings.

The man being talked about in the aforementioned lines is Zaheer Khan, former Indian ace fast bowler, who bagged 21 wickets in the 2011 World Cup and has gifted India countless memorable moments to savour. He was also a part of RCB’s maiden fast bowling attack and donned the Red and Gold threads for a staggering five years, clinching 49 scalps at an economy rate of 7.85.

Time and time again, Zaheer has been compared with other great fast bowlers of the world and James Anderson has been one of them. In a recent episode on the Ranveer Show, a podcast hosted by Ranveer Allahbadia, Zaheer’s former teammate in the Indian cricket team, Ishant Sharma drew a contrast between the left-arm pacer and Jimmy Anderson.

Ishant said, “Jimmy Anderson’s bowling style and method is quite different. He plays in different conditions in England. Maybe if he played in India, maybe he wouldn’t have found that success. Zak, he is better than Jimmy Anderson.”

Talking about the Wellington Test in 2014, where Zaheer and Ishant somewhat crossed paths in an extremely heated exchange, the latter said, “I had told that to myself. To this day, people don’t understand why I said that. I have never abused anyone who has dropped a catch. How can I say that to Zak? He is literally like a guru for me. I have never even thought about saying anything like that. It was just frustration because Brendon McCullum was scoring a lot of runs. There were only three fast bowlers - me, Zak and [Mohammed] Shami. After almost every four overs, we had to bowl again and the wicket was very flat. I was just removing the frustration on myself.”