'English Murgi Daal Barabar' - Fans react as Ishant Sharma compares Zaheer Khan with James Anderson

Indian Cricket team is currently blessed with a lot of fast bowlers in the names of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and others. But there was a time when the Indian team used to struggle for quality fast bowling options. However, things have changed quite a lot with the inauguration of MRF pace academy which has been doing a fantastic job in producing quality fast bowlers.

Recently, in an interview with Ranveer Allahbadia on his YouTube channel, the veteran Indian pacer Ishant Sharma made a huge comparison of former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan to England’s legendary speedster James Anderson. While comparing both, Sharma went on to remark that Zaheer was better than Anderson as the former played his maximum Test on Indian soil while Anderson played his majority of Test matches in English bowler-assistant conditions.

Here are some of the reactions from the fans who mostly seem to have disagreed with Ishant’s comparison of Zaheer Khan and James Anderson:

Zaheer couldn't do justice to his talent due to his frequent injuries. He even modified his action for longevity. Anderson might be lauded for still playing but he's been an ordinary bowler without support from clouds and pitch.

— Prasad Rajguru (@PrasadRajguru1) June 25, 2023

#Anderson ripened with age. With his 2000-02 pace and post-2006 brains, #Zaheer would surely have been 90% of #Anderson if not better.

— NaThing SSC (@SSC_All) June 26, 2023

Noup Anderson is Better, the way he swung the ball in India was amazing.

— SamD 🇮🇳🇺🇸 (@revisitorSam) June 26, 2023

English Murgi Daal Barabar

— Hudda.eth (@ImHudda) June 25, 2023

Nice joke 😁

— Wali Rehman (@walirehman903) June 26, 2023

Absolutely not! What is he smoking?

— Finny (@FinnysUtopia) June 25, 2023

For a fast bowler to take wickets in the sub continent pitches is a relatively tougher task compared to seamer friendly wickets of England.
That's why...

— Abhi (@Abhishek_Negi7) June 25, 2023

Jimmy Anderson in India
34 wkts @ 29.32

In Asia
82 wkts @ 26.8

In England
430 wkts @ 24

Zaheer Khan in India
104 wkts @ 35.87

Zaheer Khan in Asia
164 wkts @ 34.46

In England
31 wkts @ 28

Vs England in Ind
12 wkts @ 31.75

— Cricket (@rajdev_hirday) June 25, 2023

In 200 ODI matches for India, Zaheer Khan took 282 wickets. He played 92 times for India in the longest format, taking 311 wickets. He has 11 five-wicket hauls towards the end of his Test career. On the other Anderson had an average ODI career which saw him claiming 269 wickets across 194 games. In contrast to it, the legendary pace bowler had an illustrious Test career accounting for 686 wickets from 180 games that speedster has played so far. He has also registered 32 five-wicket hauls in the format with his best bowling figures in a game being 11/71.

Ishant also feels that Anderson would not have been so successful, had he played the majority of his games in Indian or sub-continent conditions as there is not much on offer for the pace bowler. Zaheer's international cricket career is already over, whereas Anderson is still playing for England in Test matches. The 40-year-old recently is recently playing the Ashes Test match but the veteran England bowler did not have the greatest of outings as he managed to pick up only one wicket and concede over 100 runs in both the innings combined.