Former England cricketer David Lloyd has said that Team India's decision to not play the fifth Test match due to the COVID-19 scare has denied veteran pacer James Anderson his last chance to play in Manchester.
The ground at Old Trafford has an end named after Anderson, who is England's highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. Earlier on Friday (September 10), ECB confirmed that the Test match has been cancelled due to COVID-19 fears in the Indian camp.
“It might be that India’s refusal to fulfil their commitment and play the final Test denied Jimmy Anderson a final hurrah on a ground which bears his name at one end,” Lloyd wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.
However, Lloyd feels Anderson could make a surprise call of continuing to play for another couple of years. The speedster is currently 39-year-old and he has picked up 632 Test wickets for England.
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"He might not make another England appearance at his home of Emirates Old Trafford, although if you know Jimmy, you will realize there will be no fuss. The lad’s from Burnley - they don’t do fuss.
“They’re tough people from his neck of the woods and he won’t want a fanfare,” he added.
Anderson picked up 15 wickets in the four matches with an average of 24.66 against India. "In fact, it tells you something about him that I wouldn’t have expected him to play in this game because he will have been in the red zone.
“But he’s a warrior and would have pushed himself forward once again, just as he has all summer, bowling an excessive number of overs because England cannot bat,” he said.
Team India had decided not to practice a day before the fifth Test match after the assistant physio Yogesh Parmar tested positive for COVID-19. Lloyd said he said the cancellation of the last Test match coming there.
"So, at 7 pm on Thursday when the announcement came from the ECB that the game was on, I said to Mrs Lloyd: ‘There will be a twist to this yet.’
"What made me so sure? Well, when India didn’t turn up to practice earlier that day it showed their hand. It said to me: ‘We ain’t playing.’ You don’t play if you don’t practice as a team the day before,” he added.
(With Daily Mail Inputs)
