England’s lead pace bowler James Anderson will miss the fifth and final India vs England Test in Chennai from Friday. England will be looking for a consolation victory after having lost the third Test and the series in the fourth in Mumbai earlier this week.
James Anderson will miss the final Test due to ‘soreness’, skipper Alastair Cook said.
Anderson, 34, who underwent shoulder surgery and returned to the side only in the second Test in Visakhapatnam, took two wickets in that match but w
ent without a scalp in Mohali and Mumbai.
Cook said the team management assessed his condition and decided that it would be better to rest the bowler with 467 Test wickets.
“Jimmy is rules out. His body is sore…it is not worth the risk,” Cook told a news conference.
“It is the ankle as well, and a bit of the shoulder,” Cook said, adding that the swing bowler has broken down in the past when he had carried a niggle on to the field.
Anderson in the news for Kohli outburst
Apart from his struggle on the field, Anderson has also come in for lot of criticism for suggesting that India skipper Virat Kohli, despite amassing 640 runs in the series, may not succeed if he returned to the seaming conditions in England where in 2014 he managed just 134 runs in five Tests at 13.40.
However, Cook said Anderson was very much in the frame when England travel to Australia at the end of 2017 for the Ashes series.
Stuart Broad, who suffered a leg injury in Vizag and missed the Mohali and Mumbai Tests, had a fitness Test on Wednesday but a decision will be taken later, he added.
