The England men’s team’s managing director, Robert Key has announced that legendary speedster James Anderson will return as their fast-bowling mentor after retiring from international cricket. Keys also said that they don’t want to miss out on the tons of experience that Anderson has.

Ke told the BBC: “He’s got so much to offer English cricket. We don’t want to see that go. When we asked him, he was keen. He is going to have a lot of options. English cricket would be very lucky if he chooses to stay in the game. What he does with Lancashire will probably work out after the Lord’s Test. We’ve got some conversations to have after to find out what he thinks is the best thing to do. Everything so far has been him gearing up for this Test match.”

“Sometimes you’re selecting people for what they’re going to be as well, and where you think they can progress to. It’s very much the start for Jamie Smith. We feel he’s going to be a fantastic international cricketer,” he again added.

However, Smith, who plays for Surrey, is also likely to keep wickets, with the selectors leaving out Ben Foakes and Jonny Bairstow as well. The other notable absentees from the 15-man squad are Mark Wood, Tom Hartley, and Jack Leach as well. Key also opined on Bairstow’s non-selection. He added that the wicketkeeper-batter was struggling for form across formats as well.

“Generally his form, in all formats, has just been going slightly in the wrong direction. It’s an arduous task being a keeper and you want someone who can back up series after series. We weren’t convinced that Jonny would be able to do that, especially at the stage of his career that he’s at,” Robert Key concluded.