Anderson One Of The Greats, Says Harmison

Steve Harmison was full of praise for James Anderson and Stuart Broad as England's opening pair took a combined nine wickets on day two of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Headingley.

England bowled the visitors out for 91 - enforcing the follow-on - after they had notched 298 in their first innings.

Anderson took 5-16 to move him up to sixth in the all-time leading Test wicket takers with 438 victims and is the third-highest seamer on the list behind only Glenn McGrath (563) and Courtney Walsh (519).

"James Anderson has to be talked about as one of the greats of our game," said Harmison.

"McGrath finished when he was 36, Walsh when he was 38, so of course Anderson at only 33 can keep going and pass both of them.

"They are two of the best fast bowlers of all time, so people have got to be looking now and saying that Anderson is in that same league.

"People say Jimmy has struggled to bowl in the past at Headingley, but he was awesome today, as was Stuart Broad.

"Those two as a combination together are fantastic. For me, they are the best duo that England have ever had, they've got to be talked about as one of the top combinations of all time.

"Today they got the ball to consistently land on the same length, knowing what the conditions demanded at Headingley.

"Was I surprised what happened to Sri Lanka today? No. The Test match has gone the way I thought it would.

"It's tough on the Sri Lankans, as there are some young, inexperienced lads in there, and you could have put the most experienced batting line-up in the world out there against those two in those conditions, and they would have struggled.

"It's similar for England on the sub-continent - if they are presented with a raging turner in India this winter with three high quality spinners, it will be similarly tough.

"England's tail is up now, and the conditions are unlikely to change, so I expect they will bowl Sri Lanka out for a reasonably low total again tomorrow (Saturday).

"England only bowled 36 overs, just over a session. The players are so fit now, and they'd normally expect to field around 120 overs.

"So from that point of view, I'm not surprised they enforced the follow on. They've now just got to put in the same amount of effort as they would on a flat pitch.

"It's a great way to start the Test summer, and hopefully by the end of this Test, they will have set a benchmark that they can try to look to better in the two games left in the series, and against Pakistan later in the summer."