5 top performances by England fast bowlers in Tests in India ft. James Anderson

The five-match Test series between India and England is set to begin on January 25 in Hyderabad. The hosts have been phenomenal at home in the longest form of the game. England haven't won a Test series in India since 2012.

The Indian team have become much stronger in red-ball cricket under the leadership of Virat Kohli, and that has continued under Rohit Sharma's captaincy. Hence, the Men in Blue are firm favorites in the upcoming series.

A team's chances of winning Test matches increase massively if they can pick up 20 wickets regularly. While the English spinners will be important in the subcontinent, their pacers will have to provide the side with a few early wickets.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad have arguably been the two best red-ball pacers in history for the Three Lions. While Broad retired recently, James Anderson is still going strong at the age of 41. His output will be key for the Ben Stokes-led outfit.

On that note, let's look at the top five performances by England's fast bowlers in Tests in India ft. James Anderson:

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#5 James Anderson - 4/81

James Anderson doesn't have a brilliant record in Indian conditions. He has picked up five or more wickets in six Tests against the Men in Blue. However, none of them have come in India. James Anderson's best performance came in the fourth Test of the 2012 series, which was the last time England won a Test series in India.

James Anderson picked up four wickets for the concession of 81 runs in the hosts' first innings in the Nagpur Test. He dismissed Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, and Ravindra Jadeja, which is why this performance makes this list. James Anderson was adjudged the player of the match, despite the game ending in a stalemate.

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#4 Neil Foster - 6/104

Neil Foster was a right-arm fast-medium bowler born in Essex. Injuries held him back and restricted him to just 29 Test matches. His best figures in a Test came against India in Chennai in 1985. The only reason he doesn't rank higher on this list is because this ranking is based on best performances in an innings.

Foster picked up six wickets in the first innings, dismissing the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohinder Amarnath, and Ravi Shastri. He also picked up a fifer in the second innings, this time dismissing the entire top order, which also included Kris Srikkanth. England won the Test by nine wickets.

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#3 Matthew Hoggard - 6/57

Matthew Hoggard picked up a player of the match award in the Nagpur Test of England's 2006 tour. The Yorkshire-born pacer picked up six wickets in India's first innings in the first Test of the series. This match ended in a draw, and the three-match series finished 1-1.

Hoggard's victims included Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Irfan Pathan, and Anil Kumble. Such was the brilliance in Hoggard's execution in that match that almost half of the overs were maidens.

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#2 John Lever - 7/46

John Lever's debut match was against India in Delhi, and it ended up being his finest performance in international cricket. In fact, his stats in Indian conditions were far better than his stats in English conditions, which eventually led to him featuring in just 21 Tests for the Three Lions.

After scoring a half-century in the first innings, Lever returned with figures of 7/46, which included the prized assets Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath. He scalped the entire top six, as India went from 43/0 to 49/4 to 122/10. The visitors won by a massive margin of an innings and 25 runs, courtesy of Lever.

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#1 Ian Botham - 7/48

England's leading wicket-taker until James Anderson overtook him, Ian Botham, tops the list of best performances by an English fast bowler in India. His overall performance with bat and ball in this Test was arguably one of the greatest Test outings of all time as well.

Botham picked up 13 wickets in both innings combined and also scored a century after walking in to bat at 58/5. His seven-wicket haul in the second innings included six of the top seven batters, and India were 58/6 at one point. England won the Test by ten wickets, largely due to Botham's all-round exploits.