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“I I don’t want to think about the day we don’t have them anymore, they leave, they represent England, they will be big shoes to fill,” Ben Stokes said of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, in the middle of last summer’s Ashes.
Ten months later, with Broad now retired and Anderson is already on his way, Stokes thinks a lot about this day. It is likely to come during the Pakistan tour in October at the latest.
Last summer, after Broad retired on the final day of the Ashes, Anderson said he had “no interest in leaving anytime soon”. However, it’s a problem he’s often been forced to confront, if only because people have been asking him about it for a decade. “I guess it’s an added incentive to keep going, to prove people wrong,” he said in 2016. “In the back of my mind I think I can get 500 Test wickets.” He had 433 at the time; in March, on the final day of England’s Test series in India, he reached 700.
His record is one of astonishing consistency. Between 2008, when Anderson played more than 10 Tests for the first time, and the end of 2023, his ranking among England seamers in terms of wickets taken in each calendar year was: second, second, first, first, first , second, first , second, second, first, first, injured sixth in 2019, second, first and second. He developed and maintained an absolute mastery of the art of swing bowling and at no point, except perhaps when a calf injury curtailed his participation in Ashes 2019, did it look like the writing was on the wall.
And then, last year, and despite bowling more overs than anyone but Broad, he was fifth on the list. “I don’t feel like I’m bowling badly, or losing pace or being on track. I feel I can still offer a lot to this team,” he insisted. In India he was once again England’s most productive seamer and, in difficult conditions much more favorable to spin, produced some spells of typically brilliant skill that were rewarded only by being economical. But England was already planning her life without him. Their tendency has always been to mark the passing of time not in months and years but in Ashes cycles, and as the drawn 2023 series recedes into memory, attention turns to 2025-26, when Anderson will be in middle of his 44th year.
As much as he has always refused to think about retirement, at least publicly, he may still have decided that this journey is too long. If he is still intent on setting his sights, nine more wickets would see him overtake Shane Warne for second on the all-time list, a mark likely to be surpassed during the series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka this summer.
England have been scouting potential replacements for the past few seasons. Ollie Robinson showed some of the skill but little of the fitness and focus; Matt Potts seems to have them and was excellent on the Lions’ winter tour of India; Josh Tong, Saqib Mahmood, Ollie Stone and Matt Fisher have played once or twice each, showing promise but struggling with injuries. Sam Cooke, now Essex’s vice-captain, has been earmarked for international honors and is the top wicket-taker in this year’s county championship. Then there’s the tantalizing prospect of Jofra Archer’s potential return.
Anderson will certainly be asked to remain involved in a team that currently lacks a bowling coach. With the 41-year-old at hand, England hardly need one and several of the next generation have spoken gushingly about the advice he has given them. “Picking his brain about how to move the ball, using the backswing, different techniques to come in and cover the ball, making it harder for the hitter to choose … to have the opportunity to learn from the greatest player of bowling in England is priceless,” Cook said.
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Meanwhile, several of those who played alongside him are considering a potential second career as a coach, and England will surely find a way to use all that experience. “That knowledge of how to make that ball talk, move at flat wickets, the swinging ball, you can’t buy any of that. That’s gold sitting there,” said Alastair Cook.
Asked again last year about his potential retirement, Anderson said: “I feel privileged to be in a position where I can make a decision because, as a bowler, it’s usually taken out of your hands. It’ll be nice to go out on my terms.”There aren’t many things Anderson has seemed incapable of, but perhaps making that decision was one. His last-minute options have now been narrowed down, but an August clash with Sri Lanka and Old Trafford’s Anderson End looks a romantic choice. He was the 613th player to play Test cricket for England and the next to make his debut will be the 713th. His was a hell of a century.
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