James Anderson hopes to utilise Sri Lanka ODI series for World Cup preparation

Anderson eyes SL ODIs for World Cup preparation

Sep 19, 2014

England fast bowler James Anderson is looking forward to the forthcoming One-Day International (ODI) series against Sri Lanka in the latter’s backyard in November as an  ideal platform for preparation for the upcoming World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

“Leading up to a World Cup we’ve never had that focus on one-day cricket. It’s nice to have that and I think with the one-day game we’ve got a promising squad, a very promising squad,” Anderson was quoted as saying to ecb.co.uk.

England will maintain their focus on the 50-over version of the game in the months leading up the the World Cup. They are to play seven ODIs against Sri Lanka during the months of November and December.

Their most recent ODI engagement was against a touring  Indian side led by MS Dhoni that saw the hosts lose the five-match series 1-3.

“We didn’t get the result we wanted against India so it is something that we obviously need to improve on, starting in Sri Lanka in a couple of months’ time,” added the Lancashire paceman.

“Hopefully we can get some momentum going and build up to Christmas and then once we go to Australia for the World Cup – we’ve got a tri-series before the World Cup – we’ll be in some good form and have an idea of who our strongest XI is,” added Anderson.