Anderson goes back to nature

James Anderson is yet to yield the returns his bowling has deserved this winter

James Anderson has gone back in time in an attempt to reinvent himself as the young bowler described as "gold dust" during his first season in senior cricket.

The Lancashire seamer, now 26, was such a sensation in his debut summer of county cricket that many were predicting he would lead England's attack for many years to come.

Anderson claimed 46 Frizzell County Championship wickets at 20.30 in just 11 matches in the 2002 season, swinging the ball at pace with an unorthodox action which resulted in him looking down at the ground at the moment of delivery.

Several onlookers subsequently tried to tinker with his action, fearing it would lead to serious injury problems. But Anderson has returned to what comes naturally and has been rewarded by his most consistent form for England this winter.

He has still not yielded the wicket return his efforts deserved - claiming 13 wickets in six Tests, including the abandoned match at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium - but looks more like the bowler who took county cricket by storm seven years ago.

"I'm very pleased with the way it's gone. I think I've been bowling well for a reasonable amount of time now and I've got some consistency going, which I've been searching for the last few years," he said.

"I probably haven't got the wickets during the winter I'd have liked to, but I felt like I've been bowling well.

"I can't think of a reason why I'm not getting the wickets. You do go through phases and sometimes you have a series when everything comes off and sometimes you have to work a little bit harder and possibly don't get the rewards you think you deserve."

Described as "gold dust" by Kevin Shine after Anderson claimed match figures of 9-57 to destroy Somerset at Blackpool in 2002, it has taken Anderson seven years of tinkering to return to that level again.

"I've pretty much gone full circle (with my action)," admitted Anderson. "I've had a few changes but gradually got back to where I started. It's more natural and it's how I was when I first started and feels a lot more comfortable.

Anderson forced West Indies dangerman Chris Gayle to chop on early in the second ODI in Guyana

"It took a stress fracture for the coaches to say that maybe I should go back to my original action. It was frustrating, but everything any coach has done for me has been done with my best interests at heart.

"They've not tried to change me just for the sake of changing me. They actually thought with the action I had I'd get injuries, but it's one of those things that it may not have been the action which caused the stress fracture and it could have caused by over-bowling."

Anderson now has enough experience to be regarded as one of the senior bowlers, but that is not an approach he himself takes.

"I've not really thought about being the senior bowler," he conceded. "I would maybe have agreed before the first Test and I was also dropped in India from the one-day side so I wouldn't say I am quite there yet as the senior bowler.

"We have got big Steve (Harmison) and Fred (Andrew Flintoff), who are relatively senior compared to me, but we all chip in and help each other out.

"I try and field at mid-off as much as possible and try to talk to the guy who is bowling and if I can offer some help I will, but I don't see myself as a senior bowler just yet."

Anderson will no longer be England's most experienced one-day bowler for Friday's third encounter in the five-match series, with the return of Flintoff after a month out through hip problems.

It will be a major boost to England's bowling resources after struggling to restrict the brilliant strokeplay of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan in the first two matches.

But after facing largely the same West Indies line-up for the last 10 weeks, Anderson is confident England have the firepower to win two of the last three games and secure the series.

"We've played against these guys for quite a while now and we know their batters and their strengths and things like that," he said. "As a bowling unit we're quite confident we can win these next few games."