England v West Indies: Jimmy Anderson aims for team glory
- Published
First Test: West Indies v England |
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Venue: Antigua Date: Monday, 13 April |
Coverage: Live Test Match Special radio and text commentary on every match on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra & BBC Sport website, plus desktop, tablets, mobiles and app. |
Jimmy Anderson is aiming to ignore personal milestones to put the "smiles back on people's faces" in England's Test series against West Indies.
Monday's opening Test in Antigua will be Anderson's 100th and he is four victims away from becoming England's leading Test wicket-taker.
But his main focus is helping England recover from a dismal winter campaign.
"We want to express ourselves and put smiles back on people's faces," said the 32-year-old Lancashire seamer.
Anderson is expected to become the 12th England player to reach 100 Tests and beat Sir Ian Botham's wicket-taking record.
Those landmarks are secondary to England's desire to bounce back from their miserable World Cup, when they were knocked out in the group stages.
England's leading Test wicket-takers | ||
---|---|---|
Tests | Wickets | |
Sir Ian Botham | 102 | 383 |
Jimmy Anderson | 99 | 380 |
Bob Willis | 90 | 325 |
Fred Trueman | 67 | 307 |
Derek Underwood | 86 | 297 |
Anderson is hopeful that they can repeat the form that helped them claim a 3-1 series win over India last summer.
"The 100th Test is a huge landmark for a player," he said. "I'm really looking forward to experiencing it. But the record will take a back seat.
"We have a really important period ahead trying to get some wins and get some form after a disappointing winter, so concentrating on that is the most important thing."
Since the World Cup, Paul Downton has lost his job as managing director and England are considering appointing a new director of cricket.
Asked who that might be - former captains Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan and Alec Stewart have all been mentioned - Anderson remained non-committal.
"It's well out of our hands," he said. "We've got to concentrate on our jobs which is to take wickets and score runs and try and win games of cricket.
"That's the only thing we can concentrate on, if we start thinking about who is going to be the next director of cricket then we'd get very distracted."
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