Last update on. From the section Cricket
September 2035. The Oval. The Oval.
England celebrates a 4-1 series victory, playing the same aggressive Test cricket that they learned in The Hundred. Sam Curran, 37, says goodbye to his international career.
Curran says, "It's an amazing dream." Curran said, "Not only is it a dream to see the match end on my home field, but also to share the wickets with Jimmy." Over the past decade, we've enjoyed a strong partnership in new-ball.
Curran spots James Anderson, an opening bowler, and invites him to the spotlight.
Anderson, 53, is looking forward to his 1,200th Test wicket. "Officially, I will miss him. But I'll still enjoy watching him make a fool out of himself on Strictly Come Skateboarding.
"Yes, we will need to find a new opening-bowler, but that was what we thought when Stuart Broad retired. Chris Woakes. And Ollie Robinson. Jofra Archer."
We live in an age where the sporting world is awash with the unmatched.
At 43, Tom Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Super Bowl victory. At Euro 2020, Cristiano Ronaldo, 36 years old was joint-top scorer. Germany's Dorothee Scheider won team dressage gold at Tokyo Olympics, aged 52. Roger Federer will undergo knee surgery to extend his career into his 40s.
Anderson, 39 years old and 26 days old, took 3-6 to get England to disarm India for a paltry $78. Anderson is now a modern megastar, enjoying the elixir that eternal class offers.
Although he is not a veteran, he is an absolute master of his craft and can make a cricket ball move with just a few movements of his fingers. He does not age like a fine wine but turns water into wine.
Anderson's 2021 bowling average of 19.51 is his highest in a calendar-year since 2017, and second best during his Test career, which began in 2003.
He is now bowling on average faster than in 2015. In fact, he was England's fastest bowler at Headingley's third Test.
At the end of India's opening innings, statistics are correct
It is not an accident that longevity happens. It's a way of living.
Anderson joined the BBC Test Match Special team in early 2018 to commentate on England’s one-day series against Australia. Anderson had just been part the Ashes side that was hammered by 4-0. He was tired.
"Why do all the media keep telling me that I won't be touring Australia again?" He said.
"Ofcourse I'll be returning. "Why would I want this to be my last memory of Australia?
Anderson covered a one-day international at Emirates Riverside earlier in the summer.
England won quickly over Sri Lanka in an emergency, so everyone could watch the Euro 2020 final-16 match between Germany and England.
Anderson, not Anderson - Anderson is a football fan. He was wearing his training gear and was bowling on the square.
He has often spoken out about how he could extend his career in the past, even though he never got to try a vegan diet.
On Wednesday, he stated that as a senior citizen, he feels like he needs to be more consistent in the gym. "I feel like my bowling is less and I save it for the times when it really matters.
Mental toughness is the biggest test in Test cricket. It's about getting up to bowl big spells and play in big matches. This is something I have always known."
Even if your action is as smooth as George Clooney asking your wife if she'd like to dance, 35,334 balls of Test cricket can be tiring.
Anderson has had to lift a toothbrush to his lips several times because of pain in his right shoulder. Anderson says that his quads are on fire after he does his first "sit down wee" of each day.
He said, "It still hurts." You find a way to put up with it.
"Walking off the pitch during Lord's Test 2, pretty much everything hurt. But that is what gives me so much satisfaction knowing I put in a shift for the team."
It's more than just wear and tear.
Every Test Anderson must bat for every ball he takes.
Anderson's time between taking off his bowling shoes and strapping on his pads is very short compared to the length of an episode in his Tailenders podcast.
He is likely to be bombarded with the same kind of abuse that Jasprit Bumrah used to do at Lord's. Anderson claimed it felt like Bumrah was not trying to get Anderson out.
Anderson got his revenge. Anderson has not been intimidated by short balls but he has surgically destroyed the India top order during a masterful Headingley morning. A scalpel can be as deadly as a sledgehammer if used correctly.
This was a demonstration of how to use a hint movement and maintain a metronomic control over length. It also provided an examination of India's failures with stunning consequences.
It took just five balls before KL Rahul was pulled into an unnecessary drive. Cheteshwar Pujara was an outswinger who arced like a man with concrete boots.
Main course, coup de grace, and headline act was Virat Kohli's finding the edge. He must be having nightmares about Burnley. Anderson has dismissed Kohli seven times in Test cricket. No one else has done it more often.
Anderson's performance was not only the beginning of England's best Test cricket day this summer, but it also reversed the momentum from the second Test. It may have even changed the course of a series India was on the verge of winning.
His figures were flawless. He took three wickets and scored six runs in eight overs. There were five maidens. Anderson was not required to continue his bowling as three pace bowlers, all of whom were at least 10 years older than him and one who was just four years old at Anderson's Test debut, hustled through the India middle- and lower orders.
It is becoming increasingly futile to speculate on how long Anderson will be able continue.
During the second Test, he dropped a hint. He said that he hoped his five-wicket win would not be his last appearance on the Lord's honor's board. By the time England plays there again, he will be almost 41.
Perhaps England's problem is not Anderson replacing them, but finding partners to bowl at the opposite end.
