James Anderson doesn't have many regrets in his long and illustrious career. However, as he dives back into life at Lancashire at the age of 42, he does wish he'd had the chance to play more T20 cricket - after 11 years without a single game in the format.
Anderson, who is set to feature for Lancashire against Worcestershire on Friday evening, has made a remarkable impact in his three Vitality Blast fixtures to date. He has claimed seven wickets at 10.14 and an economy-rate of 6.45, including a best of 3 for 17 in his comeback fixture against Durham at Chester-le-Street.
"I'm absolutely loving it, it's been amazing," Anderson said at Lord's this week, during an event for DP World.
"I've only played three games - and my opinion might change very quickly over the next couple of weeks - but I feel like I've missed out over the last 10 years. It is so much fun. I wouldn't change anything in my Test career, but it would have been nice to play a little bit more [T20] over the last 10 years."
Anderson remains England's leading wicket-taker in ODI cricket, with a tally of 269 scalps that may never be beaten. However, he claimed just 18 in his 19 T20Is, with his last match in the format coming against South Africa at Centurion in 2009.
"I was really nervous before my first game, but just being around Lancashire for the last however-many years, I've been dipping in and out," he said. "It has been nice to settle in and get to know the guys properly, and try to have an impact in the team and on the squad. Hopefully, I can stay fit and keep doing it for the rest of the year."
He credits his ability to adapt to the format, despite such a long absence, to his unrelenting thirst for self-improvement: a trait that was in evidence throughout his Test career, with his mastery of the wobble-seam delivery a key example of this.
"I do watch a lot of cricket. I've been around a lot of cricket. I was with the England white-ball team in the winter, so you do kind of learn all the time, watching different things - watching The Hundred, watching the Blast over the last ten years.
"I've always had slower balls, but it's getting back into nailing them down. It's something I've loved throughout my career, developing skills and working at them."
Even so, it has been a curious experience watching Anderson in action in the Blast, without his habitual cordon of slips to back him up, and with his breakthroughs coming in unconventional areas of the ground.
"All of my wickets have been caught either in the ring or on the boundary," he said. "But that is the nature of the game. It is a bit different to what I'm used to, but I've thoroughly enjoyed it."
"The game I played [against Northamptonshire], the edges I got - you don't have a slip in - went for four. You have to deal with that, and obviously they're trying to hit you out of the ground. I have found it really fun. I am trying to learn all the time and tap into the other guys who've played a lot of T20 cricket to see where it takes me."
Anderson's desire to extend his career was shown by his entries into both the IPL auction and the Hundred draft. Though he went unselected in both, the Hundred does have the intriguing second chance of a potential wildcard pick, which are awarded to the stand-out performers in the T20 Blast.
"I have no idea," he said, on that prospect. "I haven't heard anything. I just keep ploughing along. What I am finding out is that there is a lot of cricket in a county season, and it is tough. We have two more T20s and then two Championship games, and I want to play in those, so it's about trying to manage your body as well. It has been great though. I have absolutely loved it."
James Anderson was speaking at a DP World Beyond Boundaries Initiative, a mission to make the game of cricket more accessible across the globe