Ahead of England’s five-match Test series in India in 2023/24, James Anderson has perfected a new run-up.
Even at 41, James Anderson strives for perfection. Since his last professional cricket match in July 2023, at the Ashes, he has spent six months trying to improve on his run-up. For that, he used a public running track next to football club Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium and worked through relevant speed drills.
England came from two-down in the five-match Ashes to level the series, but Anderson had a torrid time, picking up five wickets from four Test matches at 85.40 apiece. He struck once every 30.5 overs.
Stuart Broad, his long-term new-ball partner, had debuted four years after him, and retired at the end of the Ashes. There were speculations around Anderson’s possible retirement as well, but he decided to continue.
“I don’t think I bowled poorly”
As he told The Telegraph Sport, he was not too bothered about his Ashes performance: “I’ve tried to look at the Ashes. Honestly, I don’t think I bowled poorly, but at the same time I didn’t feel threatening either. The ball didn’t swing. The pitches were not particularly suitable to me but taking wickets when conditions are not in my favour is something I have prided myself on in the past.”
However, he has used the time to prepare for the India tour: “India is a place where conditions will not be in favour of the seamers but I’ve been there before and had success, so I’m just trying to marry all that up and make sure I’m in a really good place.
From 13 games in India, he has picked up 34 wickets at 29.32 apiece. He was part of four England Test wins here, and played a role in three of them – with 6-79 at Mumbai in 2005/06, 6-127 at Kolkata in 2012/13, and 5-63 at Chennai in 2020/21.
New run-up, new Anderson
It will be a different Anderson this time: “My run-up is the main thing, just trying to make sure it is better. One thing that was not right was my run-up speed. I can’t rely on that fast twitch snap at the crease that I’ve had over the years so I’ve been working on my momentum in my run-up to get speed that way.
“That feels like it is working really well, the ball is coming out really well and I just need to transfer that outdoors now.
“Something that has worked well for me is mixing up training, making sure it is not doing the same thing over and over. Things like working on running technique and speed I have to do a bit more than most people now getting to the age I am at. I have to cover every base to make sure when I get to India I am in a good place.”
Despite Broad’s exit, thoughts of retirement have not crossed Anderson’s mind yet: “Sounds brutal but you just have to move on. No thought has crossed my mind about finishing. I’m getting a lot of people coming up to me saying congrats on a great career but I keep having to explain that was Stuart, not me.
“I still feel like I’ve got a lot to offer this team. I would not still be doing what I’m doing if I didn’t feel like that. I still feel like I have got the skills to win England games of cricket so as long as I feel like that, I don’t see why I should finish just because of my age.
“The training I have done this winter, I feel like age is just a number. Cricket is a game of numbers and people will always look at my age when it comes up on the screen when I come on to bowl but for me it is irrelevant. It is how you feel as a cricketer and I know I can still dive around in the field and put a shift in with the ball just like I have done for the last 20 years.
“I feel the last 5-6 years have been the best of my career. Although the Ashes did not go as well as I wanted it to, there have been many series when I have not bowled well throughout my career and it is just a case of putting in the hard work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“That has been my role”
There is the other role too, of the mentor to Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, and Gus Atkinson, in the absence of a seam-bowling coach on the India tour: “That has been my role over the recent past anyway is stepping into that mentoring role as a senior figure. I have a duty to pass on information to people. We have bowlers who have not bowled in India before, so it will be a different challenge for them. We have to help where we can.
“There are only four seamers going, so we will not be expecting to bowl a huge amount of seam. It is just a slightly different role. You might not bowl the overs you do in England but they are still important. It probably puts more importance on spells you do bowl.
“These are the things we will pass on to the guys. Reverse swing will play a big part. There might be occasions where we don’t open with a seamer. We might open with two spinners. Your role changes a huge amount then, you come on third or fourth change with set batsmen in. That is the challenge of playing in India.”
Anderson is also optimistic about England’s chances in India this time: “I’m more excited going into this tour than previous tours to India. In the past it has been a real slog and we have tried to grind it out. We will look to play the same way of the last two years but be smart about it.
“Something we have tried to progress is playing that aggressive style but learning what works in different conditions. Nobody had us down to win 3-0 in Pakistan and we can take huge confidence from that. Conditions could be similar, not identical, but slow wickets for seamers and we have to be smart.”
