Joe Root says he is sad to see James Anderson retire but understands England’s decision to move on from the legendary fast bowler to plan for the next tour of Australia.
Anderson bade farewell to international cricket at Lord’s on Friday, finishing on 704 dismissals as England made light work of West Indies, winning the first Test by an innings and 114 runs. Although retirement was forced upon Anderson, the 41-year-old seemed at peace after his 188th and final cap. He will now take on a bowling mentor role with the team for the next two Tests, and the upcoming series against Sri Lanka.
Root has been along for most of the ride, playing 110 Tests with Anderson. He captained Anderson 46 times, the second-most behind Alastair Cook (49). Having debuted in December 2012 at Nagpur with Anderson in the team, Root admitted he will miss his good friend “terribly” on the field.
“For me, all I’ve ever known for England is playing alongside Jimmy and that’s been for 12 years,” Root said.
“It’s a bit of a weird one, seeing Stuart [Broad] go last year and [now] Jimmy. I’ll terribly miss playing alongside him, but the fact that he’ll be around for the summer will be great for the young bowlers coming through and for us to keep using that experience and everything else he has to offer the dressing room. I’m really pleased that he’s been able to have the send-off that he deserves but also, it’s in some ways, a little bit sad to see him go.”
Anderson’s new role will begin next week at Trent Bridge, the first of 17 Tests between now and the 2024-25 Ashes series. That England are looking that far ahead has been a huge point of contention given they currently reside at the foot of the World Test Championship.
But the desire to regain the urn since losing it in 2017-18 is great, particularly after last summer’s 2-2 stalemate. The emergence at Lord’s of Gus Atkinson, with 7 for 45 and 5 for 61, and Jamie Smith‘s 70 along with four catches as the new wicketkeeper, are the first steps of that future-planning.
Root knows better than most about the importance of building towards an Ashes tour. He has lost three in his career, two of them as captain, and remains without a Test win (or century) in Australia. As such, he can see the logic adopted, particularly after a chastening 4-0 defeat in 2021-22 during the Covid-19 pandemic – a series he feels should not have happened in the first place.
“Arguably we shouldn’t have gone last time, should we, in retrospect? Thinking of Covid, it was about keeping the lights on last time we went.
“It’s a new opportunity for us. We did what we thought was the right thing at the time. We’ll be in a completely different place going into next time. I think the key is, you can plan and you can have all the best intentions of getting a result, it still has to fall into place.
“I think, as a player, they’re the series that you’re always looking forward to, they’re the ones you’re always building towards. More than anything, you look at what we’ve had in previous tours in Australia and what we feel like is going to be successful out there in those conditions.
“When teams have gone out there what they need for those conditions is someone like Gus that can bowl at the late 80s and early 90s [mph] and still move the ball around and make things happen at high pace. It was great to see him come in and do that on such a slow wicket here.”
On the subject of touring Australia, West Indies’ emergence from their trip earlier this year with a 1-1 draw has Root wary of a fightback. A famous win in Brisbane, inspired by Shamar Joseph, speaks to the quality of this touring side, even if they underwhelmed with scores of 121 and 136 on slow Lord’s pitch, in overcast conditions.
“We’ve not seen what they’re capable of with the bat yet, and we won’t be taking that for granted and taking that lightly,” he said.
“And then when it came to the ball, they’ve got some very skillful bowlers. You only have to look back to January and what they’re capable of doing out in Australia at Brisbane, which is such a hard place to win a Test match.”
As for Root, the addition of 34-year-old Mark Wood for the remainder of the series following Anderson’s retirement means he remains the fourth-oldest in the squad. And despite watching Broad and Anderson bow out to great fanfare in successive home Tests, retirement is far from his mind.
“Oh here we go,” he answered dismissively when asked if he had thought about his own curtain call. “Not at the minute. I’d like to think I’ll be playing for a good while yet. And when that day comes, I’m sure I’ll figure something out.
“You’ve got to earn the right to have that sort of fairytale ending, like the likes of Jimmy, Stuart, Cookie [at the Oval in 2018] have had. My focus purely is on scoring as many runs for this team as I can and helping us win as many games as we can.
“Until that focus changes and until that drive changes, then I’ll continue to solely focus on that and we’ll worry about that hopefully a long way down the road.”
