The end of Jimmy Anderson’s remarkable Test career will also be the start of a new chapter – Bazball 2.0, perhaps – after England named a 14-man squad for the start of the forthcoming series against West Indies that sees change very much afoot.
Out with the old, in with the new is the call from Rob Key, the men’s team director, having now settled the old wicket-keeping debate of Jonny Bairstow or Ben Foakes. The pair of them dropped after the 3-1 defeat by India earlier this year is the answer, with Surrey’s Jamie Smith, 23, handed a maiden Test call-up and the gloves.
Durham’s Ollie Robinson is probably the most in-form ‘keeper to miss out here, averaging 82 with the bat this season, while Sussex’s Ollie Robinson appears to simply be on the outer. Instead, Chris Woakes returns for the first time since his Ashes last summer, while Dillon Pennington and Gus Atkinson, both uncapped, are both among the seamers. Oh, England also have a new first choice spinner: Shoaib Bashir, rather than Jack Leach, his Somerset senior, or Tom Hartley.
Smith makes for an eye-catching call up, both for what it says about Bairstow’s future – Key is due to explain all on Monday – and given he plays with Foakes at Surrey and so is currently a specialist batter in the County Championship. Smith’s two seasons of keeping wicket in white-ball cricket – and plenty of it during his rise through the pathway – means Key clearly has no qualms here, having chiefly been taken by the right-hander’s positive stroke-play and an average of 50 in Division One this season.
It also means Smith will become the 12th man to keep wicket to Anderson in a Test match before he signs off after the opener against West Indies at Lord’s that starts on 10 July. The first? Alec Stewart, Smith’s director of cricket, at the same venue 21 years ago. Key’s press release announcing the squad thanked Anderson – now 41 and 700 Tests wickets to the good – for having “given everything to the sport”.
Key may well offer clarity on whether Anderson will stay on with the team this summer after his 188th and final Test match, in order to mentor the next generation, not least since Brendon McCullum’s staff does not include a bowling coach to guide this new breed. Other than the experienced Woakes, 35, there are three fledgling seamers in this first squad of the summer: Pennington, Atkinson and Matthew Potts are in, with Sam Cook of Essex and Nottinghamshire’s Josh Tongue currently injured.
Potts is the only one among them to be capped so far, with Pennington rewarded for a strong start to life at Notts after moving from Worcestershire last winter. Key has said attributes trump domestic numbers – 29 wickets at 23 make this a box ticked anyway – and clearly likes the 25-year-old’s mid-80s mph pace from a 6ft 4in frame. Surrey’s Atkinson, a touch quicker, has been on the radar for some time while Mark Wood, one assumes, is taking a breather after the men’s T20 World Cup.
Like Smith over Foakes, Bashir getting the nod ahead of Leach says something about England’s view of county cricket’s relevance. The off-spinner has already been forced to seek a short loan move to Worcestershire; that one-off outing that saw him hit for 38 runs in a single over by Dan Lawrence. The pair can now joke about it when the squad meets up next weekend, Lawrence having been named as the spare batter.
Previous England set-ups might have been put off by all this but after 17 wickets in his first three Tests against India – a trip that showed his solid temperament and drift from that high release point – they clearly see Bashir as the spinner in which to invest. It also helps that Ben Stokes is back bowling this year, easing the burden of overs while Bashir learns his craft at the top level.
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Bashir nudging out two-left armers also says a bit about this second phase under McCullum, with the target clearly being Australia in late 2025. As well as saying after the India tour that England needed to “refine” the approach dubbed Bazball by others, the New Zealander admitted thoughts would now turn towards building a side for that Ashes tour, plus five Tests at home to India in the summer that comes before.
And so the proving ground will be this Test summer against West Indies and Sri Lanka, before winter tours to Pakistan and New Zealand. Life will not be the same without Anderson but it promises to be fascinating nonetheless.
England Men’s Test Squad (For the first two Tests against West Indies): Ben Stokes, James Anderson (First Test only), Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Dillon Pennington, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes