Now the dust has settled on England’s T20 World Cup win and attention has shifted to the Test series in Pakistan, we can now give some thought to the future of England’s white ball 50 and 20 over sides.
The fact of the matter is that the bulk of our World Cup winners are now in their 30s. For instance, Liam Plunkett was ...
...unceremoniously dumped in 2019 and didn’t play again after the tournament. Will the same happen to, say, Chris Jordan?
The last England player before Anderson to go on till 40 was Alec Stewart, and before him Graham Gooch. But has been turned on its head in the last decade? However, they are still very much worth a place in the team.
Our Test batsmen, for example, rarely go on past 35. Meanwhile, Alastair Cook voluntarily ended his Test career at 33. Dawid Malan, ...
...on the other hand, seems to be improving with age; therefore it is entirely understandable that he wants to keep going.
Therefore, it might be prudent to gradually replace the likes of Jason Roy with a Phil Salt, for instance. Not every player can defy age as effectively as Jimmy Anderson.
By selecting the likes of Liam Livingstone and Will Jacks in red ball cricket, the lines between the various formats seem to ...
...have blurred. There are elder statesmen and young guns specialising in different formats, depending on their preferences.
So should selectors stick with the old adage ‘if you’re good enough, you’re old / young enough’, and just focus on winning the next game, or should they take a long-term view and replace players strategically over time?
Who can truly predict a player’s longevity? Imagine if Anderson had been pensioned off prematurely five years ago.