ANDERSON.. AND ON AND ON

Don’t rest me, I need to keep going ANDERSON RECORD BY COUNTRY:

JAMES ANDERSON is urging England not to rest him from Test duty because every series could be his last.

And Joe Root would be a fool not to get all he can from his legendary bowler before the curtain goes down on his illustrious career.

Anderson, 36, has no plans to call it a day any time soon and by only playing Test cricket he feels fit and fresh enough to keep toiling in places like Sri Lanka and the West Indies this winter.

But after going past Glenn Mcgrath’s fastbowler record with his 564th wicket, he revealed the end could hit him without warning.

“I don’t really think about retirement,” said Anderson, who will turn out for Lancashire at T20 Blast finals day on Saturday.

“I play my best when I focus on what’s ahead of me – the next game, the next series, whatever.

“I go away now, we have a decent break before Sri Lanka, I’ll try to get myself in the best condition possible to cope with the rigours of bowling seam in Sri Lanka, which could be tough. Then we’ll see how it goes.

“I read something that Glenn Mcgrath said that he went into the 2006 Ashes with no intention of retiring and by the end of it he thought his time was up.

“That could happen to me. Who knows?

“I don’t like looking too far ahead. I don’t think it helps me or the team either. At the stage I’m at I don’t play one-day cricket.

“So I think I have enough time in between Test series to prepare myself well.

“We came into this five-test series in six weeks with question marks – will the bowlers get through? We’ve got two 30-plus bowlers, will they need resting or will they get injuries? And we’ve done it.

“We pride ourselves on working hard when we got the chance and we got that time off.

“Myself and Stuart [Broad] have that time to be able to get ourselves in the right frame of mind, the right physical condition to cope with what’s ahead of us.”

Yet even Anderson understands that England need his contributions as well as preparing for a future without him and that is why they must be thrilled at the emergence of ‘gem’ Sam Curran.

The Surrey all-rounder has been a revelation in his first full series, claiming the man-of-theseries gong even though he was left out at Trent Bridge.

And there was visible excitement from Anderson when he talked about a player who should be in the England team for years.

“We’ve found a gem there,” he added. “He’s an absolute diamond of a player to be able to score runs in crucial situations or to be given the ball in any situation.

“Having that leftarm option as well – he’s extremely skilful with the ball and he loves the battle that Test cricket brings.

“We’ve made real strides. We always knew we had a pretty strong team and some really exciting talent in there. We’re lucky that we’ve added to that this series.”

AUSTRALIA: INDIA: W INDIES: SRI LANKA: S AFRICA: NEW ZEALAND: PAKISTAN: BANGLADESH: ZIMBABWE: OVERALL: Sri Lanka away West Indies away Ireland home Australia home