"The Future For Me...": James Anderson's Honest Admission After "Two Quiet Games" In Ashes

England are in a dire strait in the Ashes series. They have lost the first two games and will head into the third Test at Headingley needing a win in order to keep the series alive as a contest. James Anderson, veteran England pacer, so far has not had a great series so far. In the first Test in Birmingham, he could pick only one wicket conceding 109 runs. In the second Test at Lord's, he picked two wickets for 117 runs. The veteran of 181 Tests admits that his lean patch has got nothing to do with his age.

"I will be honest. You want to contribute in the big series and I cannot remember having two such quiet games in a row for at least the past 10 years. I feel like I have always contributed at some stage. But I do not think I am bowling particularly badly; I am just going through a lean patch, which you do not want to happen in an Ashes," James Anderson wrote in a column for The Telegraph.

"It comes with the territory at my age for people to speculate about my future. I am saying lean patch but it is only two games out of 181. But I understand. It is a high-profile series and you get put under the spotlight a bit more and the easy target is to say he is getting on a bit. But the reason I have not taken wickets is not because of my age.

"I am not thinking about the future. The future for me is just thinking about Thursday and the start of the next Test. That is as far ahead as I will look. I have said it before, even when doing well, that I do not look too far ahead. I will just try to work as hard as I can before Thursday. If I get the nod, I will put in a performance the team need. If not, I will keep working hard and play a role at some stage across the series."

The third Ashes Test starts on Thursday.