England pacer Stuart Broad called time on his illustrious cricket career following the fifth Ashes Test against Australia at The Oval earlier this week.

While Broad’s decision came as a shock for many, James Anderson said he was not surprised when his good mate told him about his retirement.

In his column for the Telegraph, Anderson revealed that Broad had considered retirement last summer and it was then the newly-appointed captain-coach duo of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum convinced him to carry on.

"Stuart told me about his retirement over a coffee before we got on the team bus for the third day's play. I was a bit shocked initially but when it sank in, it was not a surprise. He considered it last summer but Baz and Stokesy managed to talk him out of it," Anderson wrote.

"Then if you look back on the Ashes series, as he said himself, it was the perfect way to go out. It was nice we did not go out at the same time together as well. We have always been put in a bracket as a partnership but he is in his own right, one of the best bowlers England has ever produced so he deserved his own send-off," he added.

In Test cricket, Stuart Broad picked up 604 wickets in 167 matches and also made handy contributions with the bat, scoring 3656 runs at an average of 18 with one century and 13 fifties. He ranks as the fifth-highest wicket-taker in Test history and second among English bowlers, behind Anderson.

In the white-ball formats, Broad played a key role as well, taking 178 wickets from 121 ODIs. He is the fourth-highest wicket-taker for England in the 50-over format. Moreover, Broad secured 65 wickets in 56 T20Is and was part of England’s maiden T20 World Cup triumph in 2010.

Anderson also opened up on his equation with Broad over the years. "On a professional level, Stuart leaves a big hole for me. We didn’t realise it at the time but when we were young, we were in direct competition so raised our standards to compete,” he wrote.

"When we started playing together we complemented each other and understood the other’s game, how we were trying to take wickets and what we could do to help that. As the years have gone on, we have bought into our respective games. I have been his coach and he has been my coach," Anderson further remarked.