James Anderson dumps retirement rumours, Ashes 2021-22 is aim
Monday, 10 August 2020 (18:21 IST)
New Delhi: Veteran England pacer James Anderson has dismissed the rumours around his retirement and reiterated his desire to carry on playing at least until Ashes 2021-22.
The 38-year-old Anderson said that he is not impressed with the way his future with the England Test team is being speculated after just one 'bad game' against Pakistan in Manchester.
"No absolutely not. I am still hungry to play the game. The frustration for me has been after one bad game, the whispers that go around. I don't think that's fair,'' Cricbuzz quoted Anderson as saying.
However, Anderson admitted that he needs to bowl better than he did in the first Test against Pakistan. England won the Test by 3 wickets but Anderson picked up only 1 wicket over 28 overs across 2 innings.
Although, he had Pakistan opener Abid Ali dropped by Ben Stokes at slip in the second innings - and admitted to becoming "emotional" and "frustrated", emotions which then fed into his bowling."It's been a frustrating week for me personally because I have not bowled very well, I felt out of rhythm," Anderson said.
"Probably for the first time in ten years, I got a little bit emotional on the field, started getting frustrated, let that get to me a little bit. When you get frustrated and a little bit angry, you try and bowl quicker and quicker. That doesn't help on the field,'' he added.
Nonetheless, England's leading wicket-taker is confident that he can work on his shortcoming in the next few days and hoped to retain his place in the England side for the second Test starting on Thursday.
"For me it's a case of trying to work really hard the next couple of days, try to figure out of there are any technical issues I can sort out. Hope that I get the nod for the next game and I can try and show people I have still got what it takes to play Test cricket,'' he said."Hopefully I can continue this week and keep my fingers crossed that the captain and coach keep faith with me for the next game,'' he added.(UNI)
