The Ashes: A Battle James Anderson gets the support of former rival Ricky Ponting

In the current Ashes series, James Anderson has not seemed to be in his finest shape, according to former Australia captain Ricky Ponting.

In three innings spread over two Test matches, the 40-year-old Anderson has only claimed two wickets, averaging 81.00 for his efforts.

Anderson referred to the surface as his “kryptonite” after the first Test at Edgbaston, which England lost by two wickets, and said he was done if the next tracks behaved the same way.

There was little speed, bounce, seam movement, swing, or reverse swing. Over the years, I’ve done everything to improve my technique so that I can bowl in any situation, but nothing has worked. I felt like I was fighting an uphill battle,” Anderson had said in his ‘The Telegraph’ column.”

The seamer was only able to claim one wicket in his 20 overs during the first innings of the second Test at Lord’s. It is interesting that before being ousted by Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, he just short held the top spot in the ICC Test bowling rankings.

Ponting, who has seen his fair share of ups and downs over his lengthy career, expressed pity for his former rival by referring to him as a “champion”.

You never write off champions, Ponting observed in a speech at the most recent ICC Review. I do know that about the game, however. James Anderson has excelled in the game and will do so until he decides to stop playing. It still seems to be complete from a skill perspective. However, I believe that he believes that he is probably not at his best right now.

Anderson picked up a niggle during the County Championship before to the Ashes campaign, which eliminated him from consideration for the one-off Test series against Ireland. His successor, Josh Tongue, took five wickets in the second innings in his first game.

The 5-match series presently has England behind 0-1 games to none. If the host team is to stave off a strong Australian team and do so while hoping that Anderson rediscovers his flow, they must win at Lord’s.