Jimmy Anderson to take up role as England bowling mentor for the rest of the summer following his retirement at the end of the first Test against West Indies at Lord's

Jimmy Anderson will spend the remainder of the Test summer, beyond his international farewell next week, as a bowling mentor to the England team.

Anderson, who turns 42 at the end of the month, plays his 188th and final Test match of a 22-year England career against West Indies at Lord's.

He will then remain with the squad for the second and third Tests at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston and be part of the support staff for the three-match series against Sri Lanka too. England do not currently have a permanent bowling coach with their Test side.

Rob Key, the ECB's managing director of men's cricket, confirmed Anderson would work under Brendon McCullum and might be a part of an English coaching development programme that is being set up designed to keep players with vast knowledge of the world game around the team.

'He has so much to offer English cricket and we don't want to see him go,' said Key, who added that it was yet to be decided whether Anderson would continue to play for Lancashire around his new commitments. Anderson is considering featuring in two County Championship matches in September.

Anderson has been selected in a 14-man squad for just the first Test and his place for the second and third could go to Mark Wood, who was not considered for Lord's due to the match's proximity to the Twenty20 World Cup.

England's decision to blood Jamie Smith as wicketkeeper - ahead of his county colleague Ben Foakes and Jonny Bairstow, both of whom have been dropped - along with selecting Shoaib Bashir as first-choice spinner ahead of Jack Leach, despite Somerset favouring the latter, has raised eyebrows.

Equally, the uncapped pair Dillon Pennington and Gus Atkinson have been chosen ahead of Sussex's Ollie Robinson.

'Often, you are not making judgments on what they have done but what they are going to do,' said Key.

'These are people we think are going to play 50-plus Test matches.'

Key said Bairstow, a player who won his 100th Test cap in March, 'just needs to get back to what he was two years ago,' adding that he had gone in a 'slightly wrong direction,' since striking six of his 12 career Test hundreds in 2022.

'It's an arduous task being a keeper, so we want someone who can back up series after series,' Key added.

'We're not convinced at this stage of his career, he could do that.'

Referring to Foakes as the best wicketkeeper in the world, he suggested the need to develop the duality of absorbing pressure and putting it back on the opposition with the bat was his challenge.

Robinson has 76 wickets at under 23 runs apiece, but Mail Sport understands he has not had any contact from England since the tour of India earlier this year when his robustness once again came to the fore following 13 wicketless overs in Ranchi.

The 30-year-old is now behind Chris Woakes and Matthew Potts in the jostle for a traditional English-style seamer's berth while another 30-something in Leach will be asked to complement Bashir if conditions dictate later this summer and on the autumn tour of Pakistan.

With England now looking to develop a greater variety across their bowling attack with next year's Ashes partly in mind, Key confirmed that tabs are being kept on Leicestershire's tall left-armer Josh Hull.