Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad: Is the mighty pace duo’s England career over?

They share 944 wickets playing together in 126 Tests, but won’t give up on a recall despite being omitted for the Test series against West Indies starting Tuesday.

They neither have the hostile pace nor the prodigious reverse swing of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. The steep, disconcerting bounce of Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh isn’t their ally either. But on the list of the most successful fast bowling pairs in Test cricket, they occupy the top spot by a distance, having long consigned Ambrose-Walsh and the two Ws to second and third respectively.

England's James Anderson and Stuart Broad. (REUTERS)

James Anderson and Stuart Broad—blessed with attributes like conventional swing, seam, consistency and longevity—is the pair in discussion. Should their England careers now be referred to in the past tense though?

After England’s Ashes campaign in Australia ended in a 0-4 hiding, they are the biggest on-field casualties for the three Tests in the West Indies starting on Tuesday.

It is the first time since England’s visit to the Caribbean in 2004—incidentally the only time England won on those shores since 1967/68—that neither is part of an England touring team. While they bring far more to the table than cold statistics, it’s still worth poring over their towering numbers.

In the 126 Tests they have played in tandem, they share 944 wickets. Only Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne picked up more scalps together: 1,001 wickets in 104 Tests together. As a pace pair, Ambrose and Walsh claimed 762 wickets in 95 matches and Wasim and Waqar 559 wickets in 61 Tests. Anderson and Broad are the only two fast bowlers with 500-plus Test wickets to have featured in the same line-up.

In essence, a combined tally of 321 Tests and 1,177 wickets is what England have left out of the Caribbean tour for transition. Given that Anderson turns 40 in July and Broad 36 in June, the decision of Andrew Strauss, England’s interim director of cricket, to drop his former teammates has arguments going for and against it.

“It’s the start of a new cycle, so it’s an opportunity to refresh, take a step back, have a bit of a reset and create a slightly different feel to that environment,” Strauss told the UK media recently. “We need a good solid spine to that team moving forward. We need leaders, not just the captain, and this provides an opportunity for some of the players to do that.”

The responses by Anderson and Broad to their omission reveal their psyche and competitive nature. Even after playing 150 Tests each, when it would have been easy to see their axing as the end of the road and consider calling it a day, neither has taken it lying down.

“No, I can’t pretend I am as good as gold, because I am not. It would be wrong to act like everything’s okay,” Broad wrote last month in a column for the Daily Mail. “I took 11 wickets in the final two Ashes Tests. I have been Test standard for a long time and, for the last eight years, you would say world-class. Do I believe I warrant a place in England’s best team in Antigua on March 8? Of course, I do. That is why it is so difficult to comprehend.”

Strauss does not concur. “This is more about us finding a bowling resource that’s capable of winning away from home and obviously you need a lot of variety in your attack to do that. It’s blatantly obvious,” the former England skipper said.

It needs mentioning that Anderson topped the bowling averages for England in the Ashes while taking eight wickets in three Tests. In the final Test in Hobart Broad took six wickets after a five-wicket haul in Sydney. Since January 1, 2019, the two are also in the list of the top five wicket-takers away from home. Anderson is third with 41 wickets in 12 Tests, Broad fifth with 38 in 14 Tests.

It is why Strauss and skipper Joe Root haven’t entirely shut the door, maintaining that it is not the end of the road for them. When it comes to English conditions, they know the expertise of Anderson and Broad remains beyond question. And with a series against world Test champions New Zealand and a Test against India in a series where they trail 1-2 lined up in the English summer, their services will come in handy.

Whether they get a recall will depend on how the likes of Chris Woakes, Mark Wood and Craig Overton fare over the next three weeks. If they can step out of the shadows of Anderson and Broad on the flatter, slower pitches of the Caribbean, the senior pair may have to grudgingly come to terms with never wearing the England whites again.