England’s veteran pace is looking forward to the summer of Test cricket and is determined to play all seven games. When the 38-year-old takes the field against NZ on Wednesday, he’ll equal the tally of Sir Alistair Cook’s 161 Test appearances for England. He will then surpass that tally to become England’s most capped player if he features in the second match against the Black Caps.
Anderson featured in the LV= Insurance launch video ‘In With Heart’ with his national teammates to celebrate England’s cricket community. The pacer expressed his own astonishment about the feat he’s going to achieve.
“For a bowler to play this amount of games, I don’t know what the word is, but it’s a bit mind-blowing to me. It does make me feel proud. I never imagined in a million years I’d get to this point. I don’t feel like I’ve played that many games. My body doesn’t feel old or tired,”
Anderson said.
Jimmy, who’s the leading wicket-taker in the history of England cricket with 614 wickets, is also just 8 scalps shy of 1000 wickets in First-Class cricket. Anderson stated that it will be hard for modern-day bowlers to pick that many wickets due to their workload.
“1,000 wickets does seem like a lot. With the amount of cricket that’s played, there doesn’t seem to be that longevity in bowlers any more, and there’s loads of T20 cricket and whatever else going on around the world. It feels a lot.”
The legendary pacer is quite excited for the summer and to share the new ball with his long time bowling partner Stuart Broad. Anderson is determined to play all seven matches in the upcoming summer. He admitted that England’s rotation policy in the winter was a right decision considering the bio bubble fatigue and excessive cricket.
“Yes. I’d love to play all seven Tests this summer. Hopefully, if we do pick our strongest team we [Anderson and Broad] would like to think that we’re both in that. And we’d love to share the new ball together.”
“The rotation in the winter was completely understandable with the amount of cricket we had and the amount of time in bubbles that we were spending. It’s going to be slightly different this summer.”
Anderson has had countless injuries during his 18-year long international career, including shoulder injuries, stress fracture and knee issues. And yet Anderson feels he’s fortunate to not face any career-threatening injuries.
“I’ve been so lucky with injuries. I think about Simon Jones, whose career was seriously affected by injury. Or people who have long lay-offs like Jofra at the minute. Touch wood I’ve not had career-threatening injuries, so to get to 38 and be in that position makes me feel really privileged,”
he added.
Anderson is one of those players who age like a fine wine. Despite several injuries keeping him out of the action in recent years, he has continued to get better and better as a bowler. His remarkable fitness and longevity is something that every bowler would be envious of.
Speaking about Jofra Archer, who will miss the New Zealand Test series and possibly India series due to the elbow surgery, Anderson said he expects his teammate to come back stronger than ever after recovering. He stressed that Archer is important for England’s T20 WC and the Ashes campaign.
Meanwhile, up to 7500 live spectators are allowed at Lord’s for the first match against New Zealand, followed by up to 18000 spectators at Edgbaston. James Anderson is eager to play in front of the live crowd after playing behind closed doors for a year.
