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Following James Anderson’s retirement, Stuart Broad has cautioned that England’s responsibility to develop a new generation of fast bowlers may leave Ben Stokes with a “quite scary” dearth of experience for the upcoming Test series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka.
With Anderson scheduled to play his final Test match of his illustrious 21-year career against the West Indies at Lord’s on July 10th, and Broad having resigned from England duty against Australia at The Oval last summer, the Test team will have lost over 1,300 wickets and 354 matches of experience in a row in home games.
In addition, the team runs the risk of being “exposed” in the near future, not least by a West Indies team that defeated Australia recently at the Gabba and who, according to their attack chief Kemar Roach, are eager to “ruin” Anderson’s farewell. Broad made this acknowledgment in an interview with Sky Sports’ Cricket Podcast
“You could easily go into a Test match this summer with a very, very inexperienced bowling group couldn’t you?” Broad told Sky Sports. “There’s going to certainly be a huge hole left by Jimmy Anderson that someone is going to have to step into. And not just by swinging the new ball. But by communicating, by keeping calm if the boundaries are leaking, by tactically being aware of what field works at certain grounds, and on certain pitches and certain times of Test matches.
“Ultimately, you don’t learn that unless you’re thrown in. But it’s not just about throwing caps away and saying ‘have a go’, you need to pick a bowling unit that can win on that particular pitch.”
The rationale behind Anderson’s forced retirement also applies to Chris Woakes, another exceptional player in English conditions who currently holds the Compton-Miller Medal following his series-defining performances in the Ashes last year. He is another player, meanwhile, who has no realistic possibility of playing for Australia at the age of 35, especially considering his acknowledged deficiencies when playing abroad, where his average (51.88 in 20 Tests) is precisely 30 points higher than when playing at home (21.88 in 28).
“If you don’t play Woakes and Mark Wood is having a rest… you could have three seamers and a spinner potentially out there with 20 caps between them. And that’s quite scary, as a Test captain, I’d have thought.
“That could leave you a bit exposed. But there’s only one way to find out with bowlers, and that’s to give them a go, encourage them to communicate out there, encourage them to solve their problems live in a Test match. I think exposure for some bowlers now is really important because there’s talent out there.”