The veteran English spinner, James Anderson recently surpassed the record of Glenn McGrath and became the highest wicket-taking fast bowler in Test cricket and soon after that, he clarified that he has no plans of retiring anytime soon but at the same time admitted that his body could give up at any stage.
Talking to the reporters, Jimmy said, “I don’t really think about it. I play my best when I focus on what’s ahead of me, the next game, the next series, whatever. I go away now, we have a decent break before Sri Lanka, I’ll try to get myself in the best condition possible to cope with the rigors of bowling seam in Sri Lanka, which could be tough. I read something that Glenn McGrath said that he went into the 2006 Ashes with no intention of retiring and by the end of it he thought his time was up. That could happen to me. Who knows?”
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He further added, “I don’t like looking too far ahead. I don’t think it helps me or the team either, when we look too far ahead, whether it’s in a session or a day or a game. If you look too far ahead you take your eye off the here and now and that’s what I like to focus on.”
Anderson will be playing six Test matches in upcoming days – three against Sri Lanka and West Indies each – before a four-day game against Ireland followed by The Ashes. There have also been talks of the magical fast bowler getting a rest before the Sri Lanka series, however, the 36-year-old has said that he wants to play as much as possible.
Describing the same, Anderson said “We came into this five-Test series in six weeks with question marks: will the bowlers get through? We’ve got two 30-plus bowlers (Anderson and Broad), will they need resting or will they get injuries? And we’ve done it. We pride ourselves in working hard when we got the chance and we got that time off. I and Stuart don’t play white ball cricket so we have that time to be able to get ourselves in the right frame of mind, the right physical condition to cope with what’s ahead of us.”
