Anderson says England could adopt rotation policy in India series

The pacer, who is the world's highest Test wicket-taker among fast bowlers with 614 scalps from 160 matches, will turn 39 in July.

Besides standing on the verge of becoming England's most-capped Test player, Anderson is also eight shy of completing 1000 wickets in first-class cricket.

Veteran England seamer James Anderson has said players might be rotated more in the marquee five-match series against India later this summer since the games will be taking place in quick succession.

“The five Tests against India might be a different story with back-to-backs in quite a quick succession. That might be where people get rotated a bit more,” said Anderson, speaking about the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) much-debated rotation policy.

“The rotation in the winter was completely understandable with the amount of cricket we had and the amount of time in bubbles that we were spending,” Anderson was quoted as saying by 

ESPNcricinfo . “It’s going to be slightly different this summer. If everything goes well, I think it will start to get relaxed. We won’t be in the sort of bubble life that we’ve experienced in the last 12 months. So, there might be not as much reason to rest people.”

Anderson said he is looking forward to playing all of England’s Tests this summer – two versus New Zealand before the five against India.

“Yes. I’d love to play all seven Tests this summer. There are five Tests against India after these two Tests against New Zealand, and then the Ashes after that. So, we want to start this summer well,” he said, adding: “So hopefully if we do pick our strongest team, we (Anderson and Stuart Broad) would like to think that we’re both in that. And we’d love to share the new ball, yes.

“Stuart and I have sent a few texts to each other saying it’d be nice if we did get to play together. It’s completely down to the coach and captain.

“But I think, from the team’s point of view, we want to get some momentum going into a big summer.”

Anderson, the world’s highest Test wicket-taker among fast bowlers with 614 scalps from 160 matches, will turn 39 in July. He is on the verge of becoming England’s most-capped Test player – he is one short of former captain Alastair Cook’s 161 games – and is eight shy of 1,000 wickets in first-class cricket.

He calls the numbers mind-blowing.

“One thousand wickets does seem like a lot,” he said. “In this day and age, I don’t know if it’s possible to get that many first-class wickets any more. With the amount of cricket that’s played, there doesn’t seem to be that longevity in bowlers any more. There’s loads of T20 (Twenty20) cricket and whatever else going on around the world. It feels a lot.”