James Anderson targets consistency with England after ending winless streak

James Anderson

Following the win against India at Rose Bowl, which put the 5-match Test series against England back on level terms – 1-1 with two more matches to go, England fast bowler James Anderson hopes that they would be able to build on their good work after ending the 10-match win-less streak, which includes a 5-0 whitewash Down Under and the home series loss to Sri Lanka.

“I think it has just started to turn a corner, I’m hoping. It didn’t really start that well for us – we lost the one-day series and Test series against Sri Lanka and we were 1-0 down after two Tests against India,” the pacer said on what seems to be a new era in English cricket, moving on from their senior players who have either been axed or retired.

He added: “It wasn’t a great start for us even though we didn’t play particularly badly.

“Now after the Test at the Ageas Bowl I thought we certainly turned a corner. It was a very good performance from us and something that I hope we can kick on from and use to produce some better form throughout the summer.”

Won sessions, but lost key moments

Anderson, who produced a Man-of-the-Match performance for the second time in the series, said: “I think, from my point of view, I felt similar to the team – I was bowling well in patches but not doing it through a consistent period of time.”

“I wasn’t doing it throughout a whole day for example, myself and Stuart Broad - (who) was back to somewhere near his best. I think that’s something that we’ve got to try and use now. That is the standard that we’ve set ourselves and that’s what we’ve got to try and keep up for the rest of the summer.”

The 32-year-old added: “We won sessions here and there and then we’d lose key moments of games and that’s what loses you a Test match. The thing that we did at the Ageas Bowl is we won pretty much every session. We were relentless with bat and ball.

“It was quite hard work trying to do that, being relentless, and that is something that we’re going to have to front up and do again this Thursday in Manchester.”

The leading wicket-taker of the series, so far, escaped punishment following his altercation with Ravindra Jadeja at Trent Bridge and will have to shoulder more responsibility with Stuart Broad’s injury concerns ahead of the Old Trafford Test starting on August 7.