England great James Anderson, who retired from international cricket during the Lord's Test against the West Indies earlier this summer, like several cricketers in current day and age is looking for a T20 sunset onto his playing career. Anderson, who has been with the England Test team as a mentor since his retirement will stay with the side till the Sri Lanka series set to begin next week, however, may not travel to Pakistan and New Zealand in the winter.
With the free window at his disposal and will to be still be able to give something as a cricketer, Anderson is considering a late little stint in T20 franchise cricket. "I feel there is something there, that I still want to play a little bit more - I just don't know what that is yet" Anderson told the Final Word podcast. "I'm pretty open to anything at the minute. Things will become clearer as the rest of the year progresses. There's two Test tours in the winter and I'm not sure I'll be on them in this [mentor] role.
"There's plenty of things to think about and I just need to sit down and chat to people about it. I watch the Hundred and see the ball swinging around in the first 20 balls, and I think, 'I can do that. I can still do that.' I don't know if that is a viable option, to maybe see if I could do a job in white-ball cricket? Franchise cricket is something I've never done," Anderson added.
The 42-year-old hasn't played T20 cricket for a decade now and any white-ball cricket since 2019, however, Anderson was confident with how the sole Test match this summer went and how his body is feeling, will be able to give something in the shortest format but he did have one concern.
"I don't know how seriously I'm actually thinking about this myself right now [but] the bowling thing is still a definite option for me, the way my body feels right now, the way my head is. From a skills point of view, the way Test cricket's gone… I don't think that'd be an issue. But I don't know how much people would want a 42-year-old bowler in their team," the veteran said while saying that he also wants to give something back to his club Lancashire where he has played more red-ball cricket than white-ball.
