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Anderson has so far claimed five wickets at 74.80 in his four appearances in this series, and with his 41st birthday looming on the fourth day of the ongoing Oval Test, speculation has been mounting that his illustrious 20-year, 183-Test career could be drawing to a close.
The man himself, however, insists he’s blocking his ears to such talk, and points to his returns in 2022 – 36 wickets at 19.80 – as proof that it wasn’t so long ago he was at the very peak of his performance.
“I’d like to [make my own decision], yeah,” Anderson told Sky Sports. “But I’ve tried not to listen to the talk, because, for me, that question has been there for the last six years, and even longer than that.
“As soon as you get into your 30s as a bowler, it’s ‘how long have you got left?’ And for the last three, four years, I feel like I’ve bowled as well as I ever have. I feel like I’ve been bowling with so much control. My body’s in a good place. My skills are as good as they ever have been.
“So I don’t feel like I’m bowling badly, or I’m losing pace, or on the way out. I feel like I can still offer a lot for this team.”
Anderson claimed a solitary wicket in Australia’s first innings of the fifth Test, but it was a key one, as the in-form Mitchell Marsh inside-edged onto his own stumps for 16. The general view, however, was that he had hit a better rhythm on day two of the Test than he had found on the first evening, which he put down to an eagerness to make an impression in a short window of opportunity.
Even so, he was once again the least penetrative of England’s bowlers, with each of Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood and even the spinner Joe Root claiming two or more wickets in Australia’s total of 295.
“Unfortunately we all know, as professional cricketers, that you go through lean patches, whether you’re a batter and bowler,” Anderson said. “You just pray that it’s not in the most high-profile series that you can play in!
“But for me, I try and look at it objectively. I look at how I’ve bowled in the game. Yes, I’ve not got the wickets that I wanted, but I’m still trying to do a job for the team, still trying to help the guy out at the other end as well, trying to create pressure and create something in the game.
“The selection side of it is a completely different issue,” he added. “If Stokesy and Baz [Brendon McCullum] say you’ve not got the wickets we would have liked, I’m absolutely fine with that. But in terms of retirement, I have no interest in going anytime soon. I just I feel like I’ve got a lot more to give.”
In terms of the match situation, Australia secured a first-innings lead of 12 before Pat Cummins fell on the stroke of stumps, meaning that England’s openers will come out for their second innings at the start of the third day’s play. And, if their fast-paced first innings of 283 in 54.4 overs is any guide, England’s quicks won’t get long to rest up before embarking on the fourth innings, with almost twice as many overs (103.1) in their legs already. Anderson, however, was unconcerned about the prospect of a short turnaround.
“You’ve just got to bite the bullet with that,” he said. “It’s amazing the way we’re playing, we all love it and, yes, obviously we would love a full day off with our feet up to recover. But we’re in a good enough place to be able to come out, even if it’s tomorrow afternoon, and do our job as well as we can.
“It’s been a breath of fresh air, just seeing those guys do what they do with so much freedom,” Anderson added of England’s Bazball batters. “We’ve had so many years where we’ve been trying to graft our way to 160 and get bowled out, so I think the way we counterattacked yesterday was brilliant. They deserve all the plaudits.”
“The big miss for us is Mo,” he said. “He’d be a massive part of our fourth innings if we could get him out there, because it is dry, we’ve seen a couple of puffs of dust today from the seamers, so I think it will spin as the game goes on.
“I feel like it’s got slower today,” he added. “Yesterday, even when we bowled on it in the evening, it felt like it was going through at a decent pace. Today, you really had to bend your back to get something out of it, especially when the ball went softer. So hopefully, it’ll be a good pitch to bat on tomorrow.”
England will have to find a replacement for Moeen at No. 3, with various theories about who might do the job. Had they been required to start their second innings late on day two, Broad revealed that Anderson was down to open as a nightwatcher. “I think Jimmy was going to go open tonight if we lost one before [6.20pm]. But I don’t know who is going to bat three actually.”
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
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