England captain Alastair Cook has denied suggestions that pace spearhead James Anderson has 'hit the wall' despite struggling in the last two Ashes Tests, in which he claimed just four wickets despite being a Man of the Match in the first Test at Trent Bridge.
According to News.com.au, Anderson, Stuart Broad and Australia's Peter Siddle all have 17 wickets from four Tests after Broad's Man of the Match performance in the previous Test, when he claimed 11 of those wickets as Australia lost 8-56.
The report further said that Anderson's average has blown out beyond 31, with Australia's Ryan Harris being the leading fast bowler in the series with 20 wickets at just 19 apiece in three Tests.
However, Cook expected Anderson to be back in form, saying that although Anderson has not bowled as well as he would have liked over the last two Test matches, no player can perform like Anderson did at Trent Bridge and Lord's consistently well for a large period of time, adding that there is no reason why he cannot revive himself.
According to Cook, Anderson's performance may have more to do with physical strain rather than form, although he added that England's bowling attack has shared the workload nicely as Anderson starred in the first two Tests, Swann doing good intermittently and Tim Bresnan leading in the fourth Test.
Cook further said that compared to Anderson's condition in 2011 at the World Cup when he genuinely felt physically very tired and admitted that he may have hit the wall, the bowler however, has assured that he is not in the same state now.
