Steven Finn

Anderson reached the milestone when he had Kuldeep Yadav caught behind by Ben Foakes at the start of day three of the fifth Test.

While England went on to be dismissed for 195 to lose by an innings and 64 runs in the final Test of the series, the plaudits rolled in for Anderson, who is the only seamer to reach the 700-wicket mark and has Shane Warne’s tally of 708 in his sights.

TNT Sports pundit Cook even joked the 41-year-old would have half an eye on the record 800-wicket haul of Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan.

Cook said: “You go to Dharamsala as a fan and see your side get drubbed but at least you can say you were there when the only seamer in Test history got to 700 wickets.

“It was a great moment and who knows when he will stop.

“I think he would like to knock Warne off and I don’t want to say he can’t get to Muralitharan!

“Jesus, 700 is a lot, a lot of effort.”

Ex-England seamer Finn hailed Anderson’s ability to adapt given the Lancashire veteran made his Test debut back in 2003.

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“My word what a player he is,” Finn added.

“He has been a remarkable player, with his ability to evolve and adapt with the times, to stay fit and bowl at the same pace now as he did eight or nine years ago.

“What a setting to do it, at the foot of the Himalayas. To get 700 wickets in 187 games is truly remarkable.”

Anderson’s captain Ben Stokes insisted the 187-Test capped bowler should serve as inspiration for aspiring seamers.

Stokes admitted: “Yeah, amazing to be on the field. I’ve been lucky enough to be on the field for some of the milestones Jimmy has got to but being there for 700 wickets as a seamer is quite phenomenal.

“I’ve said many times he is someone every young kid who wants to be a fast bowler should look up to and try to emulate everything he has done.

“He is 41 years old, he is as fit as I’ve ever seen him and I honestly just don’t know when he will stop because the desire, commitment and everything is still there. It’s great to watch.”

Finn took 125 wickets in 36 Tests at an average of 30.4 between 2010 and 2016 for England, but he had drifted out of contention a while ago and has played no first-class cricket since July last year.

He ended a long association with Middlesex to sign for Sussex last summer, but a setback in his attempt to recover from a long-running knee problem has seen him bring his 18-year career to a conclusion.

He said: “I have been fighting a battle with my body for the last 12 months and have admitted defeat to it.

“I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to play cricket as my vocation since I made my debut for Middlesex in 2005. The journey hasn’t always been smooth, but I have loved it nonetheless.

“I retire with some amazing memories with England, Middlesex and Sussex, shared with fantastic people. Those will live with me forever.

“Cricket has given me a lot and I hope to give back to the game in some capacity in the future. But, for now, I’ll enjoy watching on without wondering whether my body will be able to make it through another day’s cricket.”

Finn took 129 wickets in 90 white-ball appearances for England and helped Middlesex to the County Championship title in 2016.

He became the club’s youngest first-class debutant aged 16 and made his England bow five years later during a winter tour of Bangladesh, while he was an ever-present in the 2010 Test home summer programme.

Finn was England’s leading wicket-taker after three Tests in their seminal 2010-11 Ashes triumph in Australia but was unceremoniously dropped for the Melbourne and Sydney triumphs because of his economy rate, while he featured just once when they retained the urn in the summer of 2013.

He was labelled “not selectable” by then England white-ball coach Ashley Giles a few months later back in Australia, with Finn later admitting he had been set back a couple of years by having to change his technique in 2012 because he kept knocking the bails off at the non-striker’s end with his knee in his delivery stride.

This habit led to complaints from the touring South Africa batters and the International Cricket Council stepped in, deeming it a no-ball – commonly known as ‘Finn’s Law’, with the seamer having to alter his run-up to correct the problem.

Finn returned to the set-up in the 2015 Ashes, with the series level at 1-1, and produced career-best figures of six for 79 at Edgbaston as England went on to claim a 3-2 victory.

Finn took 11 wickets in three Tests during the successful tour to South Africa in 2015-16 while he claimed 31 dismissals in eight matches to end Middlesex’s 23-year wait for the championship crown.

He made his final Test appearance in Dhaka in October 2016 as injuries went on to take their toll, with Finn sliding down the pecking order for both England and Middlesex before joining Sussex last year.

He took 21 wickets in 19 appearances for the south coast club in 2022 and finishes with a total of 947 scalps in 453 matches.

Finn added: “To have played 125 games for England, including 36 Tests, far surpassed what I dreamed of.

“I want to thank Sussex Cricket for their support over the last 12 months especially and for welcoming me wholeheartedly into the club at the beginning of last season.

“It really is a great place to play cricket and I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to play more of a part on the field since joining the club.”

Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said: “Steven has been a fantastic bowler for Middlesex, Sussex and England.

“Over the next few weeks and months, I’m sure he will look back on his career with great pride and reflect on his huge contribution to the game.

“At this time there is huge disappointment that he can’t continue his career having worked so hard to get back to full fitness.”

Anderson claimed five wickets at an average of 85.40 in four Ashes Tests to spark more conjecture over his future after he turned 41 in July.

While Stuart Broad retired at the conclusion of the drawn series, Anderson had no such plans to walk away and Finn, who played with the veteran seamer during England’s successful tour of India in 2012-13, is confident his old team-mate will impress over the next two months.

“Jimmy is superhuman,” Finn said of the Lancashire seamer, who has 34 wickets and boasts an average of 29.32 from 13 Tests in India.

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“People have been anticipating he will retire for about seven years now and he keeps surprising people and performing.

“He didn’t have a fantastic summer last year, but I know from knowing him as a character that he wouldn’t be doing this unless he felt he could make a difference.

“I think a determined Jimmy Anderson, well managed, is someone who will be important to England, especially making the most of the reverse swing because he is an absolute master at that.

“He would have worked on his fitness, he would have trained hard, he has got the skills and has got the experience so I anticipate when he plays, he’ll be an important cog.”

India have not lost a home Test series since England’s 2-1 win nine years ago and Finn predicted this would pose the “toughest challenge” of the Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum era.

England’s aggressive ‘Bazball’ style of play has taken the cricket world by storm over the past 18 months, but eyebrows have been raised at their preparation for this series, which begins in Hyderabad next Thursday.

Stokes’ squad have spent this week in state-of-the-art facilities in Abu Dhabi on a training camp and will only arrive in India three days before the first Test. It led to former seamer Steve Harmison predicting a 5-0 defeat.

Finn added: “I think if someone had offered (former head coach) Andy Flower three days’ preparation before a Test series his head would have exploded.

“I think there are a couple of caveats: times have changed, clearly. We don’t even go to an Ashes and have three warm-up games now, like we did on my first tour in 2010/11.

“I do think we encounter problems with the warm-up games because on that 2012 (India) tour, we turned up for a game and they played six 70mph medium pacers and no spinners and it didn’t replicate what you were going to find in the Test matches.

“I think the changing landscape of cricket has just meant they thought their preparation was best served elsewhere and it’s very hard to question this management team because every time we have over the last 18 months or so, they’ve dumbfounded everything we’ve thought of their decisions.

“I wouldn’t be as vociferous against it as Steve Harmison was a few weeks ago. It’s less than ideal but I don’t think it’s absolutely critical.”

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