England will be looking to find relevance with their mainstays in the bowling department hanging their boots in less than 12 months of each other. Stuart Broad announced his retirement last year, following the Ashes, while the legendary James Anderson, who completed 700 wickets during the Test series against India earlier in March, is set for his swansong at Lord's against the West Indies. Anderson has decided that it is the right time for him to move away from the game but for England, it will be a gaping hole in their bowling stocks.
With England, set to play West Indies and Sri Lanka at home and then New Zealand away, they have time before the next men's Ashes to build a bowling attack, who could challenge Australia in their own backyard in 18 months' time. However, Broad, who retired last year, felt that lack of depth in the bench strength for England after Anderson's departure in the first Test of the home summer.
“England could easily go into a Test match this summer with a very, very inexperienced bowling group. If you don’t play a (Chris) Woakes, Mark Wood has a rest and there’s no Jimmy Anderson, you could have three seamers and a spinner out there potentially with 20 caps between them. That’s quite scary as a Test captain I would have thought. We don’t know how much (Ben) Stokes’ going to bowl – we hope he does,” Broad said on Sky Sports Podcast.
“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, pitches and times of Test matches. Ultimately, you don’t learn that unless you’re thrown in,” Broad added.
England have tried the likes of Matt Potts, Josh Tongue and Olly Stone in the last few years but none have really stood out or put their hand up to be counted. Jofra Archer is likely to be limited to white-ball cricket and hence, there is definitely a paucity of options but given their qualification chances for the WTC 2025 final are already bleak. They can start building towards the Ashes 2025/26 directly.
