As England’s path to victory over West Indies in the opening Test became a procession, a few miles away at Wimbledon and a bit more distantly at Euro 2024 other sports provided greater drama and demanded greater attention. And, as always at Lord’s, many let their seats stand empty and relocated to one of the venue’s champagne-themed breakout areas, there were moments when cricket felt perhaps a little incidental.
In this context, the outpouring of gratitude and emotion that followed the game’s conclusion and marked Jimmy Anderson’s retirement was inspiring and reassuring, a reminder of how the game and those who play it are cherished.
“It was an incredible tribute, wasn’t it? It just showed the impact that Jimmy’s career has had on so many people, and the impact he’s had on the international stage, on English cricket as a whole,” Joe Root said. “These days, they’re few and far between, aren’t they? You don’t get the opportunity to celebrate such a wonderful career and someone that’s done things in the game that no one else has done before. I think it’s something we’ll look back on treasure. For me, all I’ve ever known for England is playing alongside Jimmy. It’s a bit of a weird one.”
Anderson’s retirement, following Stuart Broad’s last year, leaves Root the father of the house: of England’s current players Ben Stokes on 103 is closest to Root’s total of 141 Tests. It would seem natural, inevitable even, that a senior player watching the scenes that unfolded on Friday afternoon might start to ponder the choreography of their own departure, but Root insisted he had no such thoughts.
“I’d like to think I’ll be playing for a good while yet, and when that day comes I’m sure I’ll figure something out,” he said. “You’ve got to earn the right to have that sort of fairy tale ending. My focus purely is on scoring as many runs for this team as I can and helping us win as many games as we can.”
For this England side the focus is on renewal, with the Surrey players Gus Atkinson (who took seven first-innings wickets and another five in the second) and Jamie Smith (faultless with the gloves and scoring 70 at No 7) both enjoying extraordinary introductions this week and another potential debutant in Dillon Pennington waiting in the wings. “The majority of guys have been in and around the squad, it’s not like it’s a complete fresh start or rearranging things completely,” Root said. “It feels more like a continuation of things.
“Gus has been around things for a long time, both in white and red ball, and it was great to see him come in. We’ve seen in spurts in county cricket and in practice what talent he has, the ability he’s got. For him to just transfer that straight away on to this stage, and to back up a brilliant performance in the first innings with that in the second innings was just fantastic.
“I think the future does look very bright in the bowling department. We’ve lost our greatest ever bowler but for someone to come in and do that shows a lot about where we are as a team. We’re moving in the right direction and we’re continuing to add to all facets of our game as a squad.”
Root said Smith’s keeping had been “world class”, particularly on the first morning when “it wobbled around and he made it look very easy, very comfortable”, and that his innings had been enough to instantly establish his reputation. “He’ll turn up at Trent Bridge and as he walks out to bat there’ll be that fear in the opposition now, that he has the ability to really take the game away and make it very difficult to close an innings out,” he said. “It’s nice to see two guys come in and pretty much be the most effective two players in the whole game.”
The second Test will be played without competition from tennis and football, but with the third starting on the same day as the Paris Olympics this series will enjoy only a brief moment in the spotlight. Many will hope for a more competitive and compelling game, but England worked hard for their domination of the first encounter and will be happy with more of the same.
“We performed really well as a team this week,” Root said. “We took all our chances, we bowled consistently in really good probing areas, we asked really good questions for long periods of time and applied pressure on an inexperienced batting lineup. You can put it down to bad batting, I don’t think that was necessarily the case.
“And they’ve got some very skilful bowlers. We won’t underestimate them, we know what talent they’ve got. It will give us a lot of confidence. Most of the guys spent a long period of time out there, got some runs under their belt, got into the summer, into the series, and will want to build on that.”
