The Ashes | James Anderson sees Australian 'win from any situation' attitude in current England side

The most successful pace bowler ever to play Test cricket in terms of the number of wickets taken, James Anderson has high hopes of his teammates travelling to Australia for the Ashes series scheduled to start next month.

Anderson said that the amount of ability to turn games on its head that is there in the current England side under the leadership of Joe Root is way more than it has ever been for any English side of the past. He went on to say that a current lot of players make England like the Australian side of the year between 1990 to early 2000s.

He based his argument and hopes on the remarkable rearguard century by Ben Stokes at Headingley in the last Ashes series played in England in 2019. In that game, the hosts were down and out and Australia were on the verge of a rather easy Test win. However, Ben Stokes carried the England ship till the very last wicket and finally got them over the line in one of the most remarkable Test victories of all time.

“Because it was Australia that hundred at Headingley was extra special,” Anderson said. “But I also think that for the team, to know you can win from the position we were in then, I think that’s something an England side probably hasn’t had for quite a long time. It was almost very Australian, ‘we can win from any position’.

“I remember watching them in the 1990s and the early 2000s and playing against them, and it just felt like they could win from any situation, and we’ve never really had that from an England point of view. But having those characters in the team, the Joe Roots, the Ben Stokes, Jos Buttlers, Stuart Broads, to have those match-winners who feel like they can win the game from any situation, is huge," Anderson said to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Anderson missed majority of the last Ashes and with the upcoming being seen as his last of the 18-year-long Test career, he would be desperate to lead them to another Ashes triumph down under after leading the bowling attack to a stupendous performance in 2010-11 when the Andre Strauss-led England had trounced Australia to win the series 3-1.