James Anderson oversaw his first training session as an England coach as Mark Wood was thrust straight into the team to replace the retired legend.
Wood was added to England’s squad on Saturday having missed the first Test victory against West Indies at Lord’s as he built up his workload following a diet of short-form cricket at the T20 World Cup.
But he beat his Durham colleague Matthew Potts and the uncapped Dillon Pennington to a place in England’s XI for Thursday’s second Test at Trent Bridge, replacing Anderson.
Chris Woakes wins his 50th cap, and England have an interesting decision over whether Wood or Gus Atkinson, who took an extraordinary 12 wickets on Test debut at Lord’s, takes the new ball alongside him. Both Wood and Atkinson possess significant pace, but neither is a new-ball specialist. All-rounder Ben Stokes and off-spinner Shoaib Bashir complete the attack.
Anderson, England’s greatest new-ball bowler, retired to much fanfare at Lord’s last week after 188 Tests and 704 wickets across 21 years. He has moved straight into the backroom team as a “mentor” for the remainder of the summer, with captain Stokes stating that he would like Anderson to be England’s bowling coach on next winter’s Ashes tour.
Anderson has said he will bowl at England’s batsmen in the nets during the summer, but he did not bowl on this occasion, possibly because of rain that forced the players inside midway through the session.
“He said he’s going to bowl in the nets,” said opening batsman Zak Crawley. “I hope he’s going to bowl cross-seam. I’ve faced enough seam-up balls from him. A few fluffers, a few half-volleys hopefully.”
“It’s normal [Anderson moving into coaching] to be honest. He’s the same bloke. I always found he was really helpful to my game anyway, talking to him about how he bowled at me and certain things like that. He’s going to go into the role pretty seamlessly.
“I’ve taken a lot from Jimmy in my time and quite a few bowlers, asking them for certain opinions. I wouldn’t ask them about technique! But no, there’s certain game plan stuff where they’re really useful to talk to.”
Barring late injuries, the only potential selection curveball for the remainder of the series could be provided by Ben Duckett. He left training early to be with his partner Paige, who is expecting their first child in the coming weeks. The situation is made slightly simpler by the fact that, as a Nottinghamshire player, Duckett is at least on the doorstep should duty call.
Joshua da Silva, the West Indies wicketkeeper who was Anderson’s final Test wicket, admitted it was “nice to see the back” of the great fast bowler.
“I tried my hardest not to be one of those wickets but unfortunately I got a good Jimmy seed,” he smiled. “I told him after the game I was trying really hard, and he had a good laugh. What a legend he is, and I’m happy I don’t have to see him again.”
Crawley said that the retirement of Anderson and Stuart Broad in successive home Tests felt like a “changing of the guard”. At 26, he is suddenly the fourth most-capped player in the team after Joe Root, Stokes and Woakes.
England have handed out four debuts this year – including to three players in this XI – and dispensed, temporarily at least, with the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Ollie Robinson and Jack Leach.
While they resisted the temptation of handing Pennington a debut at his adopted home ground (he joined Nottinghamshire from Worcestershire this season), he is expected to get an opportunity in one of the final four Tests of the summer.
“There’s certainly a changing of the guard,” said Crawley. “It’s really good to see some young talent coming in. Gus, Dillon, Pottsy – these guys are really talented bowlers and I find them hard to face. They’re all going to go well and get the chance like Gus did.”
England team Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes (c), Smith (wk), Woakes, Atkinson, Wood, Bashir.
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