James Anderson eyes potential return to white-ball cricket

Retired England cricket legend James Anderson is considering a comeback to white-ball cricket just one month after retiring from Test cricket.

Anderson bid farewell to Test cricket last month after an illustrious 21-year-long career, during which he played 188 Tests for England.

With a remarkable tally of 704 wickets, he holds the record for the most wickets taken by a pace bowler in the history of the format.

However, the 42-year-older is now contemplating playing in The Hundred tournament, six years after playing an official white-ball game.

Anderson showed his interest in The Hundred owing to the favourable conditions for swing bowlers.

“There’s a bit of intrigue with the shorter formats because I’ve not played any franchise stuff before. Watching The Hundred this year, and seeing the ball swing around, makes me feel like I could do a job there,” said Anderson on the Final Word Cricket Podcast.

“I might be in a bit of denial because I’m well aware. I won’t play for England again but I’ve still not made a decision on my actual cricket career.”

Notably, his last white-ball match was the semi-final of the London One-Day Cup in 2019, between his boyhood club Lancashire and Hampshire.

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Meanwhile, his last international white-ball match was the ICC ODI World Cup game against Afghanistan in the 2015 edition.

However, he played his last shortest-format match in 2014 during the T20 Blast final between Lancashire and eventual champions Warwickshire.

James Anderson committed the latter portion of his career to focus on test cricket, steering clear of franchise leagues and limited-overs formats.

“Once this summer is done I can sit down and think if I want to play cricket in some shape or form again next year. I’m quite open at the minute to thoughts of any sort of cricket, I’m still fit enough to play and I’m not shutting myself off to anything,” he added.

“It’s hard to know if there’ll be any interest from people wanting me to play in that sort of thing so we’ll wait and see. I know it’s a while since I played it and my age will get brought up again but I really feel I’ll be good enough to play that form of cricket.”

For the unversed, the veteran pacer joined England’s coaching set-up as the fast-bowling mentor after his retirement.

“Bowling at the England lads in the nets, you have to have change-ups and slower balls. We constantly work on it, so I don’t think [the skills and variations] will be an issue,” he further stated.

“But I don’t know how much people will want a 42-year-old bowler in their team so we’ll have to wait and see.”

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