I am angry with how I bowled this year, I can do better!
He’s just sealed a record-breaking summer, but Anderson says...
from home. Looking back to when we got to No 1 a few years ago, we dominated at home but we always won the odd series away which really makes a huge difference.
‘This Sri Lanka trip is going to be a real test and they’re not going to make it easy for us. I’ve already been hearing stories of teams that have gone there and been given nets that at are green and seam- i ng around. Then, they come to the actual pitch they are playing on and it’s dry as you could imagine and turning from ball one. They really try to get into o people’s heads and nd that’s something we are going to have to cope with. with
‘On the last tour there I had a bit of success with the new ball and I know that period is really important. There might not have been swing but at least there was a bit of carry. Judging by their recent series though I am not expecting too much carry this time. Suranga Lakmal, their captain, has not had much bowling in their recent games and that has been when he has been their only seamer. ‘It doesn’t suggest seamers are going to tear it up but it is our job to try to find fin ways of getting wicke wickets. Whether i t ’s reverse rev swing, changes of pace or just being r relentless on the top of o off- stump and mixing the fields around a little bit.’ What makes Anderson’s A 33 wicke ets at 18 runs apiece in home Tests in 2018 all t the more impressive is that tha he required cortisone inje injections in his ankle and his troublesome shoulder at the start of the season. He puts it down to the attention to detail he now gives to the management of an ageing body. ‘Certainly in the three years since I have played one-day cricket, I have benefited from that extra bit of time to get the aches and pains out of the body after one series into the build for the one coming up. I know Stuart (Broad) feels the same.
‘It makes a massive difference being able to get your body into a condition to cope. Going into this five- match series in six weeks there were lots of questions, even posed by the players in the dressing room, on whether there would be injuries to the bowlers, whether we would need to be rested. The fact us two over 30 we have come through it means we’re happy.
‘For me, it’s about the gap leading up to the series and in that period this summer I worked as hard as I ever have, if not harder, on the things in my body that are problematic — my shoulder was giving me a bit of gip so that needed both massage and gym work. Similarly, I was trying to get my legs as strong as possible.
‘These days I do a lot of old-school road running but the majority of it is sprints on grass.’ Positivity abounds when Anderson talks about the evolution of a team that head into the winter ranked four in Test cricket. Sam Curran, he says, is a special player.
However, England are losing another one of those in Cook, whose 33 hundreds include nine in Asia, where he averages 53.13.
‘His record in the subcontinent is phenomenal,’ said Anderson.
‘It’s one of the best of any Englishmen I would have thought in that region of the world. So he will be a huge miss and very difficult to replace. It was always going to happen at some point and it has probably come sooner than a lot of people might have thought.
‘ But eventually the same will happen with me in however long. Someone will be asked to come in and do the job I’ve been doing for a number of years. It’s the nature of sport. Teams change.’
Jimmy Anderson presents BBC Radio 5 Live’s Tailenders podcast with Radio 1 DJ Greg James and musician Felix White.