RTL Today – Fast-bowling savant: Anderson will guide England’s fast players after leaving the Test

England great James Anderson will join the team’s coaching staff as a fastbowling mentor when he retires from Test cricket after the season opener against the West Indians at Lord’s next week.

The 41-year-old is the first seamer and third bowler to take 700 Test wickets, after spinners Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.

However, Anderson has decided to end his Test career after England made it clear they wanted to move on ahead of the 2025/26 Ashes.

But England director Rob Key told reporters on Monday: “After the Lord’s Test, Jimmy will continue in our set-up, and he will help a bit more as a mentor.”

Key added: “He has so much to offer English cricket. We don’t want to see that disappear.

“When we asked him, he was enthusiastic. He will have a lot of options. English cricket would be very lucky if he chooses to stay in the game.”

Anderson currently plays for Lancashire against Nottinghamshire in the County Championship at Southport, but his first-class future remains uncertain.

“What he does with Lancashire will probably come after the Lord’s Test,” Key said.

England have named three uncapped players in their squad for the first two matches of a three-Test series against West Indies, with Jamie Smith selected to keep wicket ahead of both Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes.

Smith, 23, is averaging just over 50 in the County Championship this season and celebrated his Test match call-up by scoring exactly 100 for Surrey against Essex on Sunday.

He usually plays as a specialist batsman for Surrey, with Foakes keeping wicket for the reigning county champions.

“Sometimes you also select people based on what they are going to become, and what you think they can grow into,” says Key.

“It’s really the beginning for Jamie Smith. We think he’s going to be a fantastic international cricketer.”

Key, asked how Smith would cope with the demands of keeping wicket for 90 overs a day in a Test match while not regularly behind the stumps, said he had consulted several former England wicketkeepers including Chris Read, James Foster and Alec Stewart – – Smith’s boss in Surrey.

“Some of the guys are the best goalies in the country… We use them a lot and trust their opinions a lot,” Key explains.

– ‘Wrong direction’ –

Key added that Bairstow, 34, needs to “get back to what he was a few years ago” when the Yorkshireman hit six test centuries in 2022.

However, Bairstow has been struggling of late as he has been out of action for almost a year after suffering a horrific leg break in a freak accident on a golf course.

“Generally his form, across all formats, is going slightly in the wrong direction,” said 45-year-old former England batsman Key.

“It’s a tough job being a goalkeeper and you want someone who can support you series after series. We weren’t convinced Jonny would be able to do that, especially at the stage of his career he’s at.”

Key was speaking for the first time since defending champions England’s defeat to India in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup.

England have won just one of four matches against other Test teams at a tournament in the Caribbean and the United States after struggling to defend their 50-over World Cup title in India last year.

These setbacks have called into question the positions of England white-ball captain Jos Buttler and coach Matthew Mott.

But Key said he would take time to consider their future ahead of England’s next white-ball series against Australia in September.

“I’m not going to rush into that,” he said.

“Sometimes I thought we showed how good we were and sometimes we were inconsistent. We’ll let the dust settle on the World Cup and then we’ll move on.”