Anderson Urges Next Generation To Embrace Test Cricket As exit Looms

England great James Anderson hopes future players will relish the challenge of Test cricket rather than just go "chasing the dollar" as he prepares to bow out of the five-day game against the West Indies.

James Anderson (Image Source: Google)

No choice -

Anderson was effectively forced into Test retirement by England chiefs, who want to rebuild ahead of the 2025/26 Ashes in Australia.

While accepting his career had to "end at some point", Anderson insists he is "bowling as well as I ever have".

Asked if he could have kept playing, the paceman added: "It's difficult to say. I've not really got a choice."

Signs of a new-look England side will be on show at Lord's after the hosts named their team two days before the start of the three-match series.

Anderson, 42 later this month, has been selected alongside the Surrey debutants wicketkeeper Jamie Smith and fast bowler Gus Atkinson.

Third-ranked England have played an entertaining, attacking brand of cricket over the past two years under captain by Ben Stokes, but have won just four of their past 11 Tests.

After their 4-1 series loss in India earlier this year, coach Brendon McCullum promised the team would "refine" their aggressive approach, dubbed "Bazball" in his honour.

The West Indies, ranked eighth in the world, are a shadow of the team that dominated global cricket in the 1980s but they produced a major upset in January when they beat Australia by eight runs in Brisbane.

It was their first Test victory on Australian soil in 27 years.

Former West Indies captain Jason Holder, set to return to Test cricket after missing that tour, said: "I was just so happy for the boys when they did what they did in Australia.

"It gave me a renewed energy to come back to the group and try to be a part of something special again."