James Anderson solidifies role as England's key bowler ahead of winter Test tours

James Anderson has been confirmed to continue serving as the England men's bowling consultant for the upcoming winter tours of Pakistan and New Zealand.

Anderson has been working in the role since retiring in June after the first Test of the summer, against West Indies. Both the 42-year-old and the England management decided upon an initial stint through the home series with West Indies and Sri Lanka. That agreement has now been extended through to the end of the year.

Anderson was informed earlier this year that the team would be moving on without him, during a meeting with head coach Brendon McCullum, captain Ben Stokes and managing director Rob Key, and bowed out at Lord's with 704 Test wickets from 188 caps. With the ECB keen to retain his expertise as they build towards the 2025-26 Ashes, his initial stint as a bowling consultant was to ascertain if Anderson was interested in pursuing a coaching career, and, importantly, whether the situation worked for both parties.

It does, for the time being at least. Anderson will now continue for the three-match tours of Pakistan (in October) and New Zealand (November and December). With no Test cricket scheduled for the first five months of 2025, Anderson may also get the opportunity to work with the limited-overs set-up, particularly when McCullum takes charge of the white-ball teams from the start of next year.

"At the minute, I'm due to go to Pakistan and New Zealand in the winter," Anderson told at the Kia Oval ahead of Day One of the third Test with Sri Lanka. "Then nothing concrete after that.

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"I'm very new to this, I'm still learning as we go. It's partly me trying to figure out if this is where I want to go with the next stage of my career and also for them to figure out if I'm any good at it as well."

The subsequent evolution of England's bowling attack since Anderson's enforced departure stepped up this week with a debut handed to Leicestershire's 6ft 7in left-arm seamer Josh Hull. Since joining the squad ahead of the second Test after Mark Wood was ruled out through injury, the 20-year-old Hull has been working closely with Anderson. Speaking to Test Match Special at lunch, Key lauded that exposure to someone of Anderson's knowledge and experience.

"There was a great moment at Lord's where you saw Josh Hull bowling in the middle and Jimmy standing top of his mark," Key said. "You think 'how good this is?'. All of that knowledge, you don't want to lose. Then he is able to pass it on.

"Jimmy is not always the most outgoing. He has really taken to it. You felt with Jimmy, for him to be a coach, you make the running with these people.

"Some of these have not known life without James Anderson opening the bowling for England. if you can, without being forceful, make the running and just say 'well bowled'. Even Mark Wood, when he comes in at lunch. That can have such an impact. A coach's job is to make people feel confident. Someone like James Anderson, him telling you something will carry more weight. He seems to be loving it.

"It would be great to have Jimmy in Pakistan, the same in New Zealand and who knows going forward. Jimmy has a few itches to scratch along the way but it is great to have him involved with us."

Anderson revealed recently that one of those itches is to play on the franchise circuit. He has not played any white-ball cricket since 2019, with his last T20 appearance more than a decade ago for Lancashire in 2014's NatWest Blast final.

At present, Anderson is not aware of any interest in his services. It remains to be seen whether he will continue playing for Lancashire next season.

"No," Anderson replied, when asked if conversations had taken place with prospective franchises. "But there might be people behind the scenes chatting to people.

"I have no played white-ball cricket for a while so that is the first thing I need, to get back to it, if I am to think about doing it. And I don't know if there is any interest so I will just ask around."