Jimmy Anderson is in the mood to conquer the world

Their fielding in this series, and their ability to bowl reverse swing, means they will be highly fancied for the 50-over World Cup that begins on the subcontinent next month.

They might not be the favourites to win but I remember the great Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar coming up to me during the World Twenty20 — which England won — and saying "I fancy your boys for the World Cup."

When someone like him makes such a prediction, you start to think about it seriously. They're a good team and an emerging one. Some of the young lads have matured beyond their years on this tour, so we're all hoping for and expecting great things from them.

There have been so many excellent performances on this tour but as a former swing bowler, it has been absolutely brilliant to watch Jimmy Anderson's skills with the ball during the series.

I remember interviewing Jimmy at Trent Bridge last summer after he had bowled out Pakistan and all anyone was talking about was whether he could do it in Australia. I said to him: "What's going to happen if the ball doesn't swing? Have you got a Plan B?" He said that was Plan B and that he had a Plan A, and we saw Plan A yesterday.

That was supremely skilful reverse-swing bowling.
It's one thing to have a ball reverse swinging but it's another to bowl as skilfully as Anderson.

It's brilliant, absolutely unbelievable, and it's pushing things on to a level that players of my generation would never have thought about. He had a miserable time here on the 2006/07 tour but his consistency has improved so much this time.

I said before the series that England had to try to bore the Australia batsmen by bowling maidens and that's what they've done.

They've strangled their scoring rates through accuracy. For Anderson, that has been very important because he could be very expensive when he went hunting for wickets.

He's a quiet bloke but he's brimming with confidence now.

Anderson is the attack leader, a responsibility he takes very seriously, and he is right up there now with Dale Steyn of South Africa and India's Zaheer Khan as one of the best reverse-swing bowlers in the world.

A lot of credit must also go to England's Australian fast-bowling coach David Saker.

It is hugely important that Saker has signed a three-year contract extension, because having worked in the ABC commentary box during this series, I know Australia want him back. He knows the conditions and how Australians play, so his influence on this series has been enormous.

It would, therefore, be disastrous if rumours about budget cuts to the England team are proved to be true.

So much of what has happened here in the last two months has been due to top-of-the-range, high-class coaching and it really is such a healthy place for the England cricket team to be.