Anderson: 'Next year is going to be really tough for us'

James Anderson expects a tough test next year as England look to maintain there position as the world's premier Test nation. England begin their 2012 campaign against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in January before travelling to Sri Lanka for a two-test series

England have never played a match in Middle East and Anderson believes the key to success will be to adapt quickly to conditions.

"Pakistan played Sri Lanka over there recently and played really well and won the series," Anderson told ESPNcricinfo. "They're used to those conditions now but we've never played a Test match over there so it will be a new challenge for us and we'll see how we cope with that.

"We've had challenges before. We went to Australia and won there, so we'll be confident. We'll look to see how we're going to take 20 wickets because that will be difficult and crucial for us; the spinners might play a big part"

Anderson, along with fellow seamers Graeme Onions and Chris Tremlett, will head out to join the England performance squad in South Africa for a training camp prior to the Test series.

"It's been our goal to become number one in the world and we've got there sooner than we thought we would," he said. "Next year is going to be really tough for us. Getting to No. 1 is one thing but staying there is a completely different task."