James Anderson has made the shortlist of players who will go under the hammer in the 2025 IPL auction.
At 43 years old, Anderson will be the oldest player in the auction for the 2025 competition, and if he's picked up and plays he will be the fourth-oldest player ever to appear in an IPL - behind Brad Hogg, Pravin Tambe and MS Dhoni.
After retiring from Test cricket earlier this year, Anderson indicated he was keen to join the franchise circuit, something he wasn't able to do alongside the latter years of his Test career. Although there were consistent rumours across his career that Anderson would enter the draft for the IPL or other franchise leagues, he has never featured in a T20 tournament outside of England.
Read more: IPL 2025: Full list of players registered for the auction with base price
Anderson made his international debut before T20 cricket existed in an official capacity. He featured in the first official domestic T20 competition organised by the ECB in 2004, making his debut in the format for Lancashire against Yorkshire at Headingley. That match also featured Andrew Flintoff and Carl Hooper as Anderson's teammates. In that first outing, Anderson took no wickets and conceded 25 runs off his four overs.
An international T20 berth came in 2007 against Australia at the SCG, with the likes of Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting playing for Australia. In that match, he got Matthew Hayden as his first wicket in T20Is in a heavy defeat, where England fell 77 runs short of Australia's 221.
Anderson was a regular member of England's T20I between 2007 and 2010. He played in the first-ever T20 World Cup, in which England were knocked out in the Super Eights, and he was part of the squad in the following edition in 2009. However, his T20I appearances petered out after that, just as the IPL began its rise to dominate the franchise arena.
Jofra Archer is not one of the 208 overseas players listed on the IPL auction shortlist 👀
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) November 15, 2024
Read the potential reasons for his omission ➡️ https://t.co/vURJNyOE3W pic.twitter.com/UnslD99KXg
In 2009, the second edition of the tournament, Anderson was widely tipped to play in the tournament, but opted not to put himself up for auction in order to focus on his England commitments. As England advanced further into their journey to become the world No.1 Test side in the early 2010s, with Anderson's role integral to that, his role began to diminish in the T20 arena.
He was picked in the squad for the 2010 T20 World Cup, which England won, but could not break into the side and did not play in the tournament. It wasn't only his role in the Test set-up which kept him out. In the nine T20I matches he played across 2009, he picked up seven wickets at an average of 32.85. Although he was regarded as economical, he was falling behind where England were in the format at that point.
Also read: Why Jofra Archer isn't on the IPL auction shortlist and what it means for his IPL future
Out of England's T20 thinking, Anderson's domestic outings in the format were few and far between. He played sporadically for Lancashire from 2010 to 2014, with his most recent appearance in the format now a decade ago, which coincidentally was also Flintoff's last professional game in England. His record stands at 41 wickets from 44 T20 matches at an average of 32.14 and an economy rate of 8.47.
As his T20 career faded into non-existence, however, he was still an active part of England's ODI side as their new ball bowler. It's worth remembering Anderson is still England's all-time leading ODI wicket-taker. He was part of their disastrous World Cup campaigns in 2011 and 2015, and it was only after the latter tournament that England moved away from him for good in the format as they began their road to 2019.
If Anderson is picked in the upcoming IPL auction, he will be playing in a format that's almost unrecognisable from the last time he played it. While he's been around leagues as a commentator and his playing career crosses over their timespan, adapting quickly to their demands would be a mountainous challenge.
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