England's bulwark, cannon and handyman

If there was one moment that defined the uneven battle that was the 2013-14 Ashes series, it was surely the sight of George Bailey thrashing James Anderson for a world record-equalling 28 in an over.

That is James Anderson, England's best seam bowler in a generation. James Anderson, whose bowling played such a huge role in England's Ashes win of 2010-11 in Australia and 2013 in England. James Anderson who was praised by MS Dhoni as "the difference between the sides" when England won in India in 2012.

But Anderson has carried a heavy burden for England. In that Perth Test, in temperatures that reached 47 degrees, Anderson was obliged to deliver the overs of his colleague, Stuart Broad, who was forced off the pitch with injury. He was obliged to take the field in the second innings without sufficient break due to his batsmen's inability to bat for a day. He was asked to do too much.

And there is nothing new in that. It was, after all, Anderson who had to bowl a 13-over spell to clinch the Trent Bridge Ashes Test of 2013 when all his colleagues were leaking runs and Brad Haddin was taking Australia to victory. It is Anderson who is called upon, when the pitch is slow and flat, to unlock the opposition. Anderson, who in Kolkata, or Adelaide or Nottingham or Galle, has found a way to extract life out of surfaces his colleagues have found dead.

For Anderson is the sports car used to transport scaffolding. The stag used to pull a plough. He is the strike bowler, stock bowler, death bowler and nightwatchman. Hell, in the nets, he even bowls left-arm spin when required. It was Anderson whose batting helped save England from defeat in Cardiff in 2009 and Anderson whose batting came within an inch of saving them in Leeds in 2014 against Sri Lanka. His work is never done.

So it is something of a miracle that Anderson goes into the first Test of the series against West Indies on Monday with two significant milestones within his grasp.

Firstly, he will, barring injury, become the 13th England player - and only the second seamer - to win 100 Test caps and secondly, he requires four more wickets to surpass Sir Ian Botham's England record of 383 Test victims. They are both fine achievements, made all the more remarkable for the burden his slim shoulders have been asked to carry.

And it will only get worse. In the next nine months or so, England play 17 Tests. Anderson will be expected to lead the attack in the majority. It is inevitable that performances dip, bodies ache and ennui sets in. England's schedule remains, in every sense, self-defeating.

But Anderson's enthusiasm remains undimmed. Even now, even as he reflects on what may be the culmination of a fine career, it is the pain of the bad times that drives him on. He has never forgotten the pain of being omitted from this side and will not, even after a grim World Cup, consider retiring from limited-overs cricket to prolong his Test career.

"I've never forgotten sitting on the sidelines for 18 months or two years and not being able to be out there doing what I love," Anderson said as he reflected on his career.

"I had a few years where I was out of the side and didn't know if I'd ever play again. But having experienced Test cricket and seen how amazing it is to play for England, that determination to play again has driven me on. Once I got my chance - I think it was in 2008 - I didn't want to let it go again. The ultimate is playing for England and I want to do that for as long as possible.

"You know you could get an injury at any time. You've got to make the most of being fit when you get out onto the field."

That period on the sidelines - he missed much of 2006 - came after Anderson was persuaded to change his bowling action to avoid a stress fracture. Instead, he bowled slower, lost his swing and suffered the very fracture they were looking to avoid.

But the experience was, in many ways, the making of him. He took responsibility for his rehabilitation. He went back to doing what he did best and decided to learn new tricks. He learned the inswinger, he learned to reverse the ball, he learned to hide the ball before delivery and he learned to bowl overseas. Since Peter Moores entrusted the new ball to him in New Zealand, in 2008, he has hardly looked back.

"These are all things I've picked up along the way," Anderson explained. "I didn't start out being able to swing the ball both ways. I've just filled my head with as much knowledge as possible. I've talked to ex-players and current players and done a lot of bowling and got to know my action."

Asked what advice he would offer his 18-year-old self, Anderson replies "enjoy it" and "ignore the media" and lists his two best captains as Nasser Hussain and Andrew Strauss.

"Nasser was different from anything I had experienced," he says. "Some people got on with him, some people didn't like the way he went about it but for me as a youngster - I was 20 - that firm hand was fantastic.

"I was almost in fear of him. I felt that, if I didn't bowl well, he was going to give me the back of his hand. That worked me for me at that age."

As for Strauss, Anderson praises him for being "very good at getting the best out of his players and knowing what to say at the right time to each individual."

He rates his best spells as that 13-over marathon at Trent Bridge, the first morning at Adelaide in 2010 - he dismissed Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson and Michael Clarke before lunch on a surface typically full of runs - and his performance in the Kolkata Test of 2012. Three wickets in each innings may appear modest, but they included Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni and the pitch offered him nothing. Indeed, some thought it was designed to thwart him.

The low moments? The two Ashes whitewashes stand-out, he says. As does the Johannesburg Test of early 2005, when he was called into the side for just one game and bowled poorly. He also describes this winter as "awful" for England.

While clearly uncomfortable talking about the impending landmarks - "I'm not thinking about it; we have a Test to win. We will prepare as we always do" - he remains a far less affable character on the pitch.

Indeed, after months of testing the boundaries, he flirted with serious trouble last year after an alleged confrontation with Ravindra Jadeja resulted in the ICC charging him with a Level 3 breach of their code of conduct. While the charges were eventually dropped, the experience still weighs heavy.

He claims his body is better than ever and that he has no intention to retire from limited-overs cricket to prolong his Test career. But he admits, after an "awful" World Cup, there is every chance that choice will be taken out of his hands.

"I think my body is in good enough condition to cope with both formats," he said. "If I didn't, I'd seriously consider retiring from one. But I might not get the option to retire; I might not get selected in the next series.

"My body has never been better. Once you get past 30, things get hard, so I work harder at my fitness than I ever have done and probably do less in the nets to try and keep fresh for games. I feel good. I feel like I could go on for a few more years."

All of which will be music to the ears of Alastair Cook who is quite certain to throw Anderson the new ball in the coming days. It has been a wonderful career. The sense remains, though, that had he been treasured a little more and flogged a little less, England might have coaxed even more from Anderson.

They need him more than ever now. With Broad fading and the young guns not quite ready to take the mantle, the job falls - yet again - to Anderson to find something in these low, slow modern Caribbean surfaces.

And that's the problem. For England would, now as so often in the last few years, be lost without Anderson. One more over, one more spell. One more tour, one more series. Anderson's work is never done.