The 43 year old James Anderson will return to county cricket this summer

James Anderson is in discussions with Lancashire regarding a potential return to cricket this summer. The top bowler, who will turn 43 this year, has not played a competitive match in nearly a year.

Anderson hasn’t played since his farewell game at Lord’s against the West Indies last July, speaking to Telegraph Sport, spoke that he's planning a big comeback with Lancashire, getting ready to play in every type of match to stretch out his already amazing career.

He's really excited and ready to play for Lancashire when the season begins in April and believes he'll just pick up where he left off last year, without any problems. To stay in top form, not only has he spent a more amount of time bowling in the nets, because of his coaching job with the England Test team but he's now fully focused on fitness. He worked extremely closely with the strength and conditioning coaches of the team when they were touring Pakistan and New Zealand right before Christmas.

If everything works out, Anderson might keep playing instead of retiring. He joined the team when he was only a young person and now he's getting a chance to have one more time with them. Besides playing, he has to take care of coaching the England test team's bowlers and doing some media content.

After retiring Test cricket in 2018, Sir Alastair Cook played with Essex for another five seasons and finished it at the end of 2023. The management told Anderson they were heading in a different direction and released him from the England team early last summer, ending his career unexpectedly. However, he played one final match at Lord's and his total wickets to 704. This feat put him in the high ranks, just after legends Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan.

In his autobiography that came out last year, Anderson said he felt he could continue. He compared meeting Rob Key, Brendon McCullum, and Ben Stokes to a death scene in the movie Goodfellas.

Anderson was Caring of keeping his career alive and decided to go for the IPL auction in January, having the sincere intention to get back into playing Twenty20 cricket something he hadn't done since 2014. But, when the auction happened, nobody picked him in the aution.

Anderson really loves cricket and he wants to keep playing for as many years as he is able. Even though it's been aged from the time he played T20 and from 2019 for his last 50 over game, he's open to playing white ball cricket again. But where he really shines is in county championship cricket with the Dukes ball. He's very good at it and it helps the county game a lot. Having Anderson around is of significant consequence for Lancashire and it means young players get the chance to go against facing one of the best players ever.

England's next Test match is a one off game against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge, scheduled at May. James Anderson, who is not centrally contracted by the ECB and instead operates on a series by series agreement, has greater flexibility to manage his schedule. This arrangement means Anderson will be available to play in at least five rounds of County Championship matches before England's Test summer begins. Following their relegation from Division One last season, Lancashire will be relying on Anderson as a crucial player in their bid to secure promotion back to the top tier.

After 20 years, Lancashire must pay him since he no longer has a central contract. However, it's uncertain if they'd choose not to include England's top wicket-taker.

On April 4, Lancashire starts its Championship season at Lord's, which tries to have Anderson play again at the location where he said retire to playing for England. Then, their first match at home in Old Trafford is happening very soon on April 11 and they will play with Northants.

ALSO READ : Smriti Mandhana Breaks Record as Fastest Indian Woman to Score 4000 ODI Runs in IND vs IRE Match