James Anderson expands England bowling role for winter Test tour

James Anderson will continue as England’s men’s bowling advisor for their upcoming winter tours of Pakistan and New Zealand.

Anderson has been working in the role since his retirement in June after the first Test of the summer against the West Indies. Both the 42-year-old and the England management opted for the opening stint in the home series with the West Indies and Sri Lanka. This agreement has now been extended until the end of the year.

Anderson was informed earlier this year that the team would continue without him during a meeting with head coach Brendon McCullum, captain Ben Stokes and chief executive Rob Key, and bowed out at Lord’s with 704 Test wickets from 188 caps. With the ECB keen to retain his expertise in the build-up to the 2025-26 Ashes, his initial stint as a bowling consultant was to find out whether Anderson was interested in pursuing a coaching career and, importantly, whether the situation worked for both sides.

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

“At the moment I’m supposed to go to Pakistan and New Zealand in the winter,” Anderson told Sky Sports at the Kia Oval ahead of the first day of the third Test with Sri Lanka. “After that, nothing concrete.

“I’m very new to this, I’m still learning as I go. Part of it is trying to see if this is where I want to go next in my career and also for them to see if I am.” I’m good at that too.”

The subsequent development of England’s bowling attack since Anderson’s forced retirement intensified this week when 6ft 7in Leicestershire left-arm seamer Josh Hull was handed a debut. Hull, 20, has been working closely with Anderson since joining the squad ahead of the second Test after Mark Wood was ruled out through injury. Speaking to Test Match Special over lunch, Key praised being exposed to someone of Anderson’s knowledge and experience.

“There was a great moment at Lord’s when you saw Josh Hull bowling in the middle and Jimmy standing at the top of his mark,” Key said. “How good do you think it is?”. You don’t want to lose all this knowledge. Then he can pass them on.

“Jimmy’s not always the most reliable. He really got into it. You felt with Jimmy that when he’s the coach, you run with these guys.”

“Some of them haven’t known life without James Anderson opening the bowling for England. If you can without being demanding, run up and just say ‘well bowled’. Even Mark Wood when he comes to lunch. That can have The coach’s job is make people feel confident when they tell you something.

“It would be great to have Jimmy in Pakistan, the same in New Zealand and who knows what’s next. He’s scratched Jimmy along the way but it’s great to have him with us.”

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

Currently, Anderson is not aware of any interest in his services. Whether he continues to play for Lancashire next season remains to be seen.

“No,” Anderson said when asked if there had been talks with potential franchises. “But there may be people behind the scenes talking to people.

“I haven’t played white-ball cricket for a while, so that’s the first thing I need to get back into if I’m going to think about it. And I don’t know if there’s interest in it, I’ll be.” just ask.”