This might be the best £4.50 James Anderson ever spent. He has spent the last six months trying to unravel why his lofty standards had fallen in the ashes of last summer, and at 41 he decided it was time to recast his rise.
To help with this, Anderson used the public running track next to Manchester City’s Emirates Stadium and, paying at the gate like other runners, worked on speed drills that he thought would help him get closer to the crease.
Anderson took five wickets in four Tests and averaged 85 against Australia and rarely looked threatening. A combination of injuries early in the series was timed with some unhelpful finishes (he called them “Kryptonite” in his own book). Telegram Sports column) got him off to a slow start and he never fully recovered. Stuart Broad’s exit from the big stage in spectacular style naturally led many to think Anderson should do the same, but he was determined to carry on, believing it was a one-off interruption.
‘I don’t think I bowled badly in the Ashes but I wasn’t threatening’
He has not played competitively since the Oval Ashes Test and did not pick up the ball until October. He is now rested again and ready to head to India for five Tests, where the conditions the seamers faced in the Ashes will be much tougher when the series begins in Hyderabad on January 25. To help himself, Anderson decided that after 183 Tests, 690 wickets and over 20 years in international cricket, he needed to reshape the most fundamental aspect of the bowler’s technique: running. The rest of us may not notice a noticeable change, but it feels different to him.
“I tried to look at the ashes honestly. “I don’t think I bowled badly but at the same time I didn’t feel threatening,” he says. Telegram Sports. “The ball didn’t swing. The pitches weren’t to my liking but taking wickets when the conditions weren’t in my favor is something I’ve prided myself on in the past. India is a place where the conditions are not going to be in the sailors’ favour, but I’ve been there before and done well, so I’m trying to put all that together and make sure I’m in a really good place.
“The important thing is my second run, I’m just trying to make sure it gets better. One of the things that wasn’t right was my running speed. I can’t rely on that quick twitch in the crease that I’ve had over the years, so I’m working on my momentum in my running to get speed that way. It feels like it’s working really well, the ball It comes out really well and now I need to export it.
“What worked well for me was mixing up the training and making sure you weren’t doing the same thing over and over again. With things like running technique and working on speed, I need to do a little more than most people do at my age now. I’m sure I’m in a good place when I get to India.” “I need to visit every base to make sure.”
‘I don’t understand why I should finish because of my age’
Broad’s absence won’t be felt too much by Anderson as retirement gradually comes to an end. Broad did not travel to Pakistan last winter and both have been on rotational duty in recent years. However, this put Anderson’s future in the spotlight and he was a bit nervous about whether he would be given another central contract. A one-year deal was offered and accepted.
“It sounds cruel, but you have to keep going,” he says of Broad. “No thought crossed my mind about finishing it. A lot of people come up to me and say congratulations on a great career, but I have to explain that it’s Stuart, not me.
“I still feel like I have a lot to offer this team. If I didn’t feel that way, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now. I still feel like I have the skills to win England cricket and as long as I feel that way, I don’t see why I should finish just because of my age. “In training this winter, age is just the thing. I felt it was just a game of numbers. Cricket is a game of numbers and when I come to bowl people will always look at my age when that comes up on the screen but it doesn’t matter to me. That’s how you feel as a cricketer and that I can still move around the field and make changes with the ball as I have done for the last 20 years.” I know.
“I think the last 5-6 years have been the best of my career. Even though the Ashes didn’t go my way, there have been many series in my career where I haven’t bowled well and this is just a case of me working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen again. ”
‘We can even open with two spinners in India’
India’s pitches will challenge Bazballers. Taking 20 wickets has been one of the main drivers of the Ben Stokes era; If the pitch is flat, his pitch settings and innovative tactics will be put to the test. If there is a spectacular spin that can help England, who will see that it is the equalizer for the spinners? The four sailors on the team (Anderson, Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson and Gus Atkinson) will be rotated.
Wood and Atkinson provide shock pace, while Robinson and Anderson provide backhand skills that can be crucial. Given that Stokes cannot bowl and three of the four players are either age-prone or prone to injury, it appears they could be a lightweight in the team. The other, Atkinson, is an unknown quantity. There is no specialist seam bowling coach on this tour and Brendon McCullum has often said why the team needs a coach when Anderson will impart his experience in the dressing room.
“That’s been my role in the recent past, stepping into a mentoring role as a senior figure. I have a duty to convey information to people. We have bowlers who have not bowled in India before, so it will be a different challenge for them. We must help as much as we can.
“There’s only four seamers going so we won’t expect to get a lot of seams. It’s just a slightly different role. You might not exaggerate the overs you do in England but they’re still important. It probably puts more emphasis on the spells you bowl. Those are things we’ll pass on to the lads. Reverse swing is a big one.” “There may be situations where we don’t open with the seamer. We may open with two spinners. Then your role changes drastically, you come in at the third or fourth change with the batsmen in the set coming in. That’s the challenge of playing in India.”
Anderson’s record in India is good: 39 wickets in 29 overs. He bowled an excellent spell of reverse swing in the final tour to help them win the first Test but was rendered redundant on the spinning pitches India subsequently prepared. This will be a tough tour; Seven weeks in India will be played at less fashionable venues with little preparation, with England opting for a week in Abu Dhabi to warm up against local opposition. It is a modern trend that will not change.
“I am more excited about joining this tour than my previous tours to India. “This has been a real challenge in the past and we have tried to overcome it,” he says. We will try to play the same way as the last two years but be smart about it. One of the things we’re trying to improve on is playing an aggressive style, but learning what works in different situations. Nobody could convince us to win 3-0 in Pakistan and we can take a lot of confidence from that. Conditions may be similar, they may not be the same, but they are slow doors for sailors and we have to be smart.”