Room for improvement for England
In an interview with Andy Bull for the Guardian, James Anderson admits that the 3-0 Ashes scoreline was a little flattering to the hosts
08-Sep-2013
England may have retained the Ashes with a seemingly comfortable 3-0 scoreline, but James Anderson, in an interview with Andy Bull for the Guardian, admits that the hosts had to rely on several moments of individual brilliance, rather than a series of consistent performances, to bail out the team who were "comfortably 30% below our ability and potential".
Anderson is beginning to sound like the old bowler he is, moaning about having to pick up the batsmen's slack. But he does not excuse himself either. "For the bowlers, barring the odd moment, there were too many times between the stand-out performances where we weren't great." They were too reliant on individual match-winning spells, from Stuart Broad at Chester-le-Street, Swann at Lord's and Anderson himself at Trent Bridge, when he would rather they had all been more consistent through the series. He took 10 wickets in the first Test but after that "I wasn't really up to scratch". He felt he was starting to bowl better again by the fifth Test "but I have high standards and I think I can still get better as a bowler, get more consistent. Performances like at Trent Bridge shouldn't just be one-offs. They have to be more regular. That's my job."