England coach Andy Flower says seamer James Anderson is winning his battle to be fit for the start of the Ashes series against Australia.Anderson, 28, cracked a rib at a training camp earlier this month but it is hoped he will be back in action before the first Test on 25 November.”He’s already bowling at 75%, so he should be fine for the first Test,” said Flower.”More than likely he’ll be OK for two of the warm-up games.”Anderson is thought to have suffered the injury in a sparring session during a recent team-building camp in Germany.Despite the setback, Flower has no regrets over the controversial camp, insisting it was “a very healthy experience”.”It was an excellent camp, actually, and I think the players and management that were involved in it did things that they might never have done before in their lives and might never do again,” he added.Flower is also unconcerned about the form of star batsman Kevin Pietersen, who has not scored a Test century since March 2009 and was forced to apologise for an expletive-laden rant on Twitter when he was dropped from the one-day side.Pietersen joined South African side Kwazulu Natal Dolphins in a bid to rediscover his form but made 36 and a second-ball duck in his two first-class innings.Flower stated: “He’s very well; he enjoyed his trip to South Africa and he’s in a very good state of mind ready for the tour.
“He didn’t get many opportunities [for Natal]. Unfortunately, the way the games panned out, he only got one innings in each game.”But he did some really good work with the Natal side and I think it would’ve stood him in good stead. He feels good about his cricket, he feels confident going into Australia.”England fly to Australia on Friday. Their first tour match against Western Australia comes up on 5 November before matches against South Australia five days later and Australia A on 16 November – Bcc
