Jimmy Anderson is confident he will be fit in time for the first Test with Pakistan after testing his injured right shoulder with a gentle bowl in the nets on Thursday morning.
The 33-year-old was discovered to have developed a stress fracture to his shoulder blade after the drawn third Test with Sri Lanka last month, having originally been scanned for a slight muscle niggle in his back, and is a doubt for the series opener at Lord’s starting on 14 July.
While he had already been withdrawn from the Lancashire side that plays Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge from this Sunday, in what would have been his only game before the first Test, Anderson will still travel with the team and continue to increase his workload in the hope of returning in time.
“I’m optimistic that I’ll be OK for Lord’s,” said Anderson, who sits No1 in the world Test bowling rankings. “I’m not playing against Notts but I’ll be at Trent Bridge and will do some more work on my bowling; gently to begin with, let’s see how it goes.
“It depends whether they are happy to select me without having bowled in a match. It’s all a bit into new territory – it’s not a very common injury. It was only discovered when I had a scan to look at some muscle damage in my right shoulder. I’d been aware of that for a little while but I felt it most when I sent down my final delivery of the Lord’s Test against Sri Lanka.
“ Sometimes, scans pick up issues that you didn’t know you had. There might be other bowlers walking round with stress fractures in their shoulders but not realising it.”
Anderson is encouraged by the fact he has been cleared to lift ’full load’ weights in the gym and has already been able to send down some gentle looseners this week at Lord’s, however England may yet opt to hold him back for the second Test at his home ground, Old Trafford, with just three days in between the back-to-back matches.
Another doubt going into the four-match series is the all-rounder Ben Stokes, who has already returned for his county, Durham, following the knee surgery that saw him miss the final two Tests with Sri Lanka, but has not yet been cleared to resume bowling.
The 24-year-old is currently playing as a specialist batsman only and will remain so for the four-day Championship match with Hampshire at the Riverside, starting on Sunday, meaning – like Anderson – he too will not have sent down a competitive ball before the first Test.
Meanwhile, England have announced they will play seven Test matches against South Africa and West Indies in the space of just two months next summer as part of their longest and busiest international home season in history.
Beginning with the first of two 50-over fixtures against Ireland in Bristol on 5 May, the international season will run until the last of six limited-overs matches against West Indies in Southampton on 29 September, the latest in the year England will have hosted a match.
In between they will take on South Africa in three one-day internationals and three Twenty20s, either side of hosting the 50-over ICC Champions Trophy in June, before embarking on a marathon run of seven Test matches in July and August, four against South Africa then three against West Indies.
