England’s red-ball set-up is going through a transitional phase and it started with Joe Root’s stepping down as Test captain. However, before that, the ECB already took a bold decision by dropping James Anderson and Stuart Broad from the West Indies series earlier this year. It was Root’s last assignment as England Test captain as they lost the Test series 0-1. The speculations of Root and Anderson’s rift hit the roof when he was dropped from the side.
Anderson, who is the most successful Test pacer of all time with 640 wickets, dismissed all the rumours of his alleged rift with Root and said the two shared a great respect for each other.
“We do talk, we’ve not fallen out or anything, we chatted (during the game),” said Anderson, “I spoke to him before he announced that he was stepping down. There’s still a huge amount of respect between the two of us so there’s no animosity,” Anderson was quoted as saying by Yorkshire Post.
Recently, during a group stage clash of their domestic sides in the 2022 County Championship, Anderson dismissed Root with his trademark inswinger. The former England captain came forward to defend the ball, but Anderson’s ‘jaffa’ cleaned him up and hit the timber.
Speaking on the same, the 39-year-old stated: “I’ve watched the video a few times,” added a smiling Anderson. “The thing I like about it the most is it’s a good ball. It wasn’t intended to be reverse but it’s definitely drifted in. It was wobble seam.”
ECB, on Thursday, recalled Anderson and Broad into the Test side for the first two contests of the three-match series against New Zealand.
