England is facing stiff competition for India in the Edgbaston Test. However, James Anderson was inspired by India's fightback and felt it would give England similar confidence.
England will look to draw more confidence from India's emphatic comeback after losing five early wickets in the innings, feels veteran seamer, James Anderson. He senses the hosts will leave no stone unturned to play aggressive cricket in the ongoing fifth and final Test for the Pataudi Trophy at Edgbaston in Birmingham. England is in crisis, losing half of the side by the end of the second day's play on Saturday. It is currently 84/5 and is trailing the visitors by 332 runs, while persistent rains are not helping the hosts' cause either. The situation is highly analogous to that of India, 98/5 in the first innings, before Rishabh Pant (146) and Ravindra Jadeja (104) led to a fightback.
During the post-day press conference on Saturday, Anderson stated, "We're in a similar situation to them, and that gives us the confidence we can do something similar. We've all got a job to do down the order. We've got to put on some extensive partnerships and pressure back on India. I feel our best line of defence will be to attack."
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"The way we've got ourselves out of sticky situations in the last few weeks [against New Zealand] has been by trying to put pressure back on the opposition, and I don't see this being any different. We want to score and move the game forward, and that's what we'll try and do," recalled Anderson.
Anderson also lauded Pant's resilience and fightback by commenting, "I thought we bowled well yesterday morning and into the afternoon and then Pant played an amazing innings. He's extremely talented, has all the shots, and is not afraid to play them, so he's a difficult guy to bowl at."
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In contrast, he defended his fast bowling partner Stuart Broad, who got punched for record 35 runs in an over by Jasprit Bumrah. "On another day, one of those top edges goes straight to hand, and no one talks about the over if that happens. I thought the way it went was pretty unlucky," Anderson said.
"Sometimes it can be easier to bowl to top-order batsmen. I remember a few balls I bowled to Mohammed Siraj today, where he tried to hit two out of the ground and then played a perfect back-foot defensive to the next one. So, it can be tricky to get into a rhythm against them. You've just got to back yourself that your best ball will get them out eventually," concluded Anderson.