Jimmy Anderson to take up role as England bowling mentor for the rest of the summer following his retirement at the end of the first Test against West Indies at Lord’s

Jimmy Anderson will spend the remainder of the Test summer as a bowling mentor for the England team after his international retirement next week.

Anderson, who turns 42 at the end of this month, will play his 188th and final Test match of his 22-year career for England against the West Indies at Lord’s.

He will then remain with the squad for the second and third Tests at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston and will also be part of the support staff for the three-match series against Sri Lanka. England currently do not have a permanent bowling coach with their Test side.

Rob Key, ECB director of men’s cricket, confirmed that Anderson would work under Brendon McCullum and could form part of an England coaching development programme designed to retain players with an extensive knowledge of the international game in the team.

“He has so much to offer to English cricket and we don’t want to see him leave,” said Key, who added that it has not yet been decided whether Anderson will continue to play for Lancashire around his new commitments. Anderson is considering playing in two County Championship matches in September.

Anderson has been selected for only the first Test in a 14-man squad and his place for the second and third could go to Mark Wood, who was not considered for Lord’s because of the match’s proximity to the Twenty20 World Cup.

England’s decision to blood Jamie Smith as wicketkeeper – ahead of his county counterpart Ben Foakes and Jonny Bairstow, both of whom have been dropped – along with selecting Shoaib Bashir as first-choice spinner ahead of Jack Leach, despite Somerset preferring to the latter, the decision has raised eyebrows.

Similarly, uncapped pair Dillon Pennington and Gus Atkinson have been chosen ahead of Sussex’s Ollie Robinson.

“A lot of times you don’t judge what they’ve done, you judge what they’re going to do,” Key said.

“We think these are people who are going to play more than 50 Test matches.”

Key said Bairstow, a player who won his 100th Test cap in March, “just needs to get back to what he was two years ago”, adding that he had taken a “slightly wrong direction” since hitting six of his 12 career goals. Test hundreds in 2022.

“It’s a tough job being a goalkeeper so we want someone who can support us series after series,” Key added.

“We’re not convinced at this stage of his career that he could do that.”

He called Foakes the best wicketkeeper in the world and said his challenge lay in developing the duality of absorbing pressure and returning it to the opposition with the bat.

Robinson has 76 wickets at less than 23 runs apiece, but Mail Sport understands he has not been in contact with England since the tour of India earlier this year. Then his robustness came to the fore again after 13 overs without a wicket in Ranchi.

The 30-year-old now finds himself behind Chris Woakes and Matthew Potts in the battle for a traditional England-style berth, while another 30-year-old in Leach will be asked to complement Bashir if circumstances dictate later this summer and during the autumn tour of Pakistan.

With England looking for greater variety in their bowling attack, with next year’s Ashes partly in mind, Key confirmed that Leicestershire’s long left-armer Josh Hull is being monitored.