Legendary England pacer James Anderson is set to feature in his 188th and last Test match, starting on July 10 at the Lord’s Cricket Ground against West Indies.

Anderson is currently the third-highest wicket-taker in Test history with 700 scalps to his name from 187 matches. He has a chance to go past Shane Warne’s tally of 708 wickets in his farewell Test.

Ahead of the first Test against West Indies. England skipper Ben Stokes revealed that he sent an interesting text message to retiring Anderson after the latter picked up a seven-wicket haul for Lancashire last week.

Stokes sent him a message that read: "Did you really have to do that?" Anderson's response was rather funny: "Yeah, ha, ha sorry mate."

Speaking exclusively to Telegraph Sport, Stokes admitted that Anderson still possesses the world-class skills needed to excel in Test cricket.

"No doubt about that. He is still incredible. His skillset will be missed, but I look at it this way: the group of bowlers we have now are at the worst they are going to be because they will only get better. Their ceiling is so high, the more game time we can give them, we will find ourselves in a very strong position in Australia," the England captain stated.

Anderson’s retirement decision was influenced by strategic considerations, particularly with the 2025 winter Ashes tour of Australia in mind.

“Jimmy’s skillset is obviously still good enough for international cricket. But we have to make big decisions and we have got the Ashes to think about in 18 months’ time. Nobody will ever say, ‘Oh, is that Jimmy Anderson? I thought he was meant to be good,’ because he is still incredible,” Stokes said.

After this farewell Test, James Anderson will take up the mentoring role for the remainder of the summer before deciding if he wants to continue playing First-Class cricket for Lancashire or transition into a full-time coaching role.