Anderson: ‘There are not any ideas about retirement’
James Anderson has insisted he has had “no thoughts about retirement” regardless of taking 4 wickets in his three Ashes Tests this summer time.
Anderson, who will flip 41 this week, admitted he has been “frustrated” to not have an even bigger impression on the sequence, however stated in his Telegraph column: “I still feel like I’m bowling well.”
He wrote: “I have certainly not had the returns I would have liked in this series. Everyone goes through a lean patch but you just don’t want it to be in the most high-profile series we play.
“Ten or 15 years in the past the talk can be about whether or not I must be dropped. Now it’s about my future. I perceive that. It is The Oval, the tip of a sequence and a time for hypothesis.
“I keep talking to the coach and captain. They want me around, so as long as I am still hungry, want to put in the work then I will keep trying to give my best for the team. That is exactly where I am at the minute.”
Anderson added that he nonetheless loves Test cricket “as much as I ever have” and that the final 14 months have been his favorite interval as an England participant. “There are no thoughts about retirement,” he wrote.
“If I was bowling horrendously, with my pace down and hobbling around in the field I might be thinking differently. But the hunger is still there. I feel like I’m bowling well, that I can still offer something to the team. I felt like I bowled well at Old Trafford and if I get another chance this week, I will just keep trying the same stuff and hope my luck changes.
“It is simply a type of issues. There are at all times one or two gamers who’ve a lean sequence. It could be a batter who will get good balls after which a little bit of unhealthy luck. It felt like that was my week in Manchester. I felt like I beat the bat loads of occasions, however simply did not take the wickets that you really want as a bowler to assist the crew win.
“There were a couple of times when I bowled a tight five-over spell then Woody [Mark Wood] came on and took a wicket straightaway. It feels like maybe I created the pressure, then Woody came on and let loose. It’s teamwork.”
Anderson additionally declared himself accessible to play within the fifth Test at The Oval, which begins on Thursday.
“I’ve chatted to a few of the guys because it is frustrating when you go through this,” he wrote. “You are frustrated and desperate to help the team, desperate to win games.
“But sadly for me it was to not be this sequence. I’ve nonetheless received one other sport to go if I do get an opportunity and I’ll try to do the very best I can.”