Veteran England pacer James Anderson was contemplating on taking part in The Hundred before deciding against it. Instead, the 38-year-old will be doing commentary in the upcoming 100-balls-per-side tournament.

Anderson, who is a key member of the England Test side, will be leading the attack when they host India in a five-match Test series from August 4. On the other hand, the inaugural edition of The Hundred will run from July 22-August 21.

In order to prolong his Test career, Anderson had retired from the white-ball formats of the game in 2015. However, he was tempted to return to limited-overs cricket via The Hundred but dropped the idea as he did not want to jeopardise his Test availability.

"I did think about whether I should actually try and get a gig as a player, but in the end I just felt it was probably for the younger guys to crack on with that. I didn't want to affect my Test availability by getting injured throwing myself around in the Hundred - it might not have been the best idea," Anderson said at the media launch of The Hundred.

"I did explore it - I was interested, but I fell down on the side of prolonging my Test career. I didn't want to jeopardise that too much so I'll leave it to the young lads to throw themselves around in the field too much," he added.

Anderson though feels England's other Test players, who will be featuring in The Hundred, won't be concerned about picking up injuries in the tournament before the India series.

"You can get injured at any point - that's just the nature of the game. I don't think people are going to be careful because of a Test series: you've got to throw yourself into it and try to play at 100% every time you get the chance. Hopefully nothing like that happens but there obviously is the chance because every time you go out on the field there is a chance of injury.

"I think there's definitely no harm in playing the Hundred and playing some white-ball cricket, having that freedom to go out there and try and hit the ball. Test cricket does have a way of trying to stifle you at times and you can get a bit uncertain about your technique or movements and things like that. All the Hundred will do is encourage positivity: positive moment of the feet, positive shots, and I think that can only be a good thing," he remarked.

(With India Today inputs)