James Anderson: We’re struggling to fight off chasing pack

England paceman says team have not come to terms with the pressure of being labelled the world’s best side
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25 July 2012

Jimmy Anderson believes England are struggling to cope with the demands of being the world’s top-ranked Test team after suffering their fifth defeat in 10 matches since reaching the No1 spot last summer.

England, thrashed by South Africa at The Kia Oval this week, must draw the three-match series if they are to stay at the summit. If the Proteas win the Second Investec Test at Headingley next Thursday, they will take the series with a game to spare and replace Andrew Strauss’s team at the top, less than a year after England claimed the title by defeating India at Edgbaston.

That spot is now in danger after Hashim Amla scored a triple-century and both Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith made hundreds for the dominant tourists.

Anderson is confident England can put their poor performance behind them and win in Leeds but, as one of the team’s most experienced players, he fears they are still adjusting to the expectation that comes with being labelled the world’s best.

“When you’re trying to become No1 in the world, you’re trying to chase everyone else down and now, we’re the ones being chased,” Anderson told Standard Sport. “So it’s a different position we’re in and maybe we’ve not quite come to terms with that yet.

“It’s a different challenge that comes with different pressures.

“People expect you to win and to play well every week and, in reality, that’s not going to happen.

“You’re going to have days or weeks where you’re not quite on top of your game and unfortunately, this was one of those weeks. We’ll just have to make sure we come back strongly.

“It was our goal for a number of years to get to the top of the rankings and when you get there, you want to stay there. We know if we lose the series, we won’t stay there. People expect you to play as the No1 team in the world and we didn’t do that this week.

“We hope our batsmen can take heed from how Kallis and Amla played and the bowlers can also learn from their bowlers, so we put in a better performance next time.”

After the debacle at The Oval, coach Andy Flower and captain Strauss gathered the players in the dressing room to try to understand what had gone wrong.

There is no doubt England are ­wobbling but they cling to their ability to respond strongly after poor performances. The most memorable examples of this were against Australia, when defeats at Headingley in 2009 and Perth in 2010 were followed by decisive victories at The Oval and Melbourne respectively.

Anderson considers such forums an important part of the success England have enjoyed in recent years. The view he offers is that England’s bowlers, who took only two South Africa wickets in the First Test, need to regain the spiky approach that served them well on their journey to the top.

“South Africa showed intent and real aggression in their bowling and that’s somewhere we could improve for the next game,” the 29-year-old said. “We’re a very good unit when we’re aggressive and in batsmen’s faces and we probably didn’t do that as well as we could, even if it’s hard to be aggressive when you’re bowling at two guys who have scored hundreds.

“We’re an open and honest dressing room and we’re critical of each other, constructively. After a game like that, everyone is encouraged to speak their mind and there is no bulls**t.

“It’s something Andy Flower brought in when he became coach and it’s something that’s helped us improve.

“Andy encourages everyone to speak, whether they have played one Test or 100. When I started playing, that wasn’t the case. There would be a few senior voices in the dressing room and that would be it, and maybe that’s why we weren’t as successful then.

“Now the honesty we have and the respect we have for each other means that when someone speaks, everyone listens, no matter who they are. We don’t sit there for hours talking drivel. It could be 10 minutes, it could be half an hour but then it’s done.

“You move on and you focus on what you can do better at Headingley.”

Jimmy Anderson was speaking on behalf of ASDA, which is proud to be entering its seventh year of sponsorship of the National Kwik Cricket competition.

Visit asda.com/kwikcricket for more information.

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