Veteran England pacer James Anderson is the only member in the touring group who was part of the Three Lions’ last tour of Pakistan in 2005. Ahead of the opening Test of the historic three-match Test series on December 1, Anderson said he is feeling blessed to be back in Pakistan.
Anderson has worked hard on his fitness to be able to remain one of the most lethal pacers in the world of cricket. The 40-year-old made his Test debut in 2003 against Zimbabwe at Lord's, and he is still a vital cog in England’s Test bowling attack, both at home and away.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Anderson said: “I’m very fortunate that I’m naturally quite fit. I feel very fortunate that I’m still here, very fortunate to be able to be back in Pakistan after so long.”
The legendary bowler continued, “We’ve had an amazing welcome. All the guys are really excited to be back here, even the guys that weren’t here 17 years ago understand how big a tour this is in terms of world cricket, not just the two teams that are here.”
Speaking about the Rawalpindi pitch, the Englishman said: “I’m not a great pitch reader. One thing we have noticed is that there’s been a bit of dew around in the morning when we got here for practice . . . might be a little bit of moisture in the wicket early on. Well, I’ll be hoping for that as well.”
Anderson further said on the subcontinent pitches, “The challenge is trying to find something in unresponsive pitches. You’ve got to try and find ways of taking wickets and the introduction of Ben as captain and Brendon as coach has also helped in terms of thinking outside the box . . . we’ve got to take 20 wickets and so I’ll focus on that for the next few weeks.”
The England pacer said that the Pakistan squad looks strong, and the tourists have to play their best game to outsmart the hosts in their own backyard.
He signed off by saying, “They’ve got all areas covered with pace, and their batting I think is really strong. We’ve got to be on top of our game to get anything out of the series. We’ve come here to win . . . we want to make sure we’ve got plans for all of them. We’ve just got to make sure we adapt to the conditions.”
(With AP Inputs)
