With veteran seamer James Anderson walking out for the final time for England, both English and West Indian players gave him a guard of honour at Lord's on day 3 of the 1st Test. A video of the same emerged on the social media handles of England cricket, with the crowd also applauding loudly.
While the 41-year-old has been denied the opportunity to overtake Shane Warne and become the 3rd highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, he has still had an impressive match. He took only 1 wicket in the 1st innings, but has already hit back with 3 in the 2nd of Kraigg Brathwaite, Alick Athanaze, and Joshua da Silva. Da Silva became Anderson's first victim of England on day 3 as the hosts reduced them to 88-7 and sending them towards a big defeat.
England chose to bowl first on day 1 and justified the decision by bowling the Caribbeans out for 121. The home side batted the remaining part of the opening day and most of the subsequent one to gather a 250-run lead, putting themselves in a commanding position to take a 1-0 lead.
Ben Stokes reveals that decision regarding James Anderson:
With skipper Ben Stokes, coach Brendon McCullum, and managing director Robert Key convincing Anderson into retiring, the captain said that the decision is keeping in mind the Ashes series next year. He said, as quoted by BBC:
"We had to make some decisions around what we think is best for the team going into that Ashes series. We want to go out there and we want to get that urn back. We've made some unbelievable strides over the last two years but now we find ourselves where what can we do now can make this team even better."
