I learnt a few tricks from Zaheer: Anderson

England pacer James Anderson has revealed that he learnt a few tricks of how to keep batsmen guessing, which way the ball will swing from Indian strike bowler Zaheer Khan, which helped him transformed into a lethal bowler in the last few years.

Anderson, who played a big role in England retaining the Ashes, said he picked up from Zaheer how to hide the ball in hand so the batsmen didn’t know, which way it would swing when he visited India in England’s tour of 2008.

“Last time we were in India, Zaheer Khan was hiding the ball in his hands so the batsmen didn’t know, which way it would swing. I picked that up from him,” Anderson said.

He said he watched a lot of other international cricketers and learned from them in his determined effort to come out of his disastrous form in the Ashes in Australia four years ago.

“I picked up a lot from Mohammad Asif when he was in England, how he hit the seam and could swing and wobble the ball. He is a world-class bowler and I try to learn and develop different kinds of deliveries from that,” Anderson was quoted as saying by Mirror tabloid.

Anderson said changing the attitude was the key before perfecting skills such as swing, seam and reverse swing.

“Body language is a huge thing — especially for a bowler. You don’t want to be seen trudging to your mark so I try to keep my shoulders back and be as positive as possible. “In the past, I’ve been pretty average in that respect.

People were telling me and I saw it for myself when I looked at games on TV. I could see my body language wasn’t good enough,” said Anderson.

Kevin Pietersen might have claimed that England would not have retained the Ashes with Peter Moores still in charge but Anderson has praised the former coach for keeping faith in him.

“We were in New Zealand in early 2008 when Matthew Hoggard and Harmison were dropped and myself and Stuart Broad back into the side. Our coach at the time Peter Moores wanted me to lead the attack and gave me a lot of responsibility.

That boosted my confidence and things have gone from there. “I always knew I had a lot more ability and skill than I’d shown until that point. I knew I could improve a hell of a lot. I also knew I could perform at this level because I did it to an extent when I first started with England. I thought that if I could improve and work hard at my game I could perform really well,” he said.