James Anderson is set to make his first County Championship appearance of the season for Lancashire against Gloucestershire this week; Stuart Broad was available for Nottinghamshire’s game at Durham but hoped to delay his return until the Worcestershire meeting a week later.
James Anderson is set to play for Lancashire against Gloucestershire in the County Championship this week
James Anderson is set to return to Lancashire in the County Championship this week as he pushes for the Test of England to be withdrawn.
The 39-year-old and his sewing partner Stuart Broad, 35, were controversially omitted from March’s three-Test series in the West Indies, in which England were beaten 1-0.
Anderson, England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker with 640 wickets in 169 games, did not feature in Lancashire’s first championship game of the season against Kent at Canterbury last week.
But the pacemaker is set to play Gloucestershire at Emirates Old Trafford from Thursday after receiving the go-ahead from the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Broad, who this week distanced himself from the vacant England Test captaincy role, was also available for Nottinghamshire’s match at Durham, but the daily mailfor whom Broad writes a column, reports that he will delay his return until the home clash with Worcestershire from April 28.
Anderson and Broad’s international future could become clearer in the coming weeks with the appointment of Rob Key as England’s new managing director of men’s cricket.
England’s first Test of the summer is against New Zealand at Lord’s from 2 June.
Alongside Anderson, Saqib Mahmood is available for Lancashire’s Championship match with Gloucestershire after being rested for the match against Kent.
However, Ollie Robinson, who missed all three Tests against the West Indies due to a back spasm, will sit out the trip from Sussex to Worcestershire with a non-Covid illness.
