Stuart Broad has lavished praise on James Anderson following the news that England's record wicket-taker will retire from Test cricket later this summer.
Anderson will step away from the England team after the first Test against West Indies in July and Broad, who formed a highly-successful opening bowling partnership with the Lancastrian for many years, believes Anderson will retire as the best bowler England has ever produced.
Speaking on the Sky Sports Cricket podcast, Broad hailed Anderson as the 'ultimate bowler' and 'the best we've ever produced'.
"My thing was always continuous improvement. Jimmy's has always been that as well and we drove each other forward a lot with that mindset," Broad said.
"Working on different things in the nets. I think Jimmy worked on a new run-up at 41. I certainly changed mine in 2019 and I was 33/34. We always had that mindset you had to keep improving.
"That was probably why he played that much. If we didn't have that mindset, we might have played 20 Tests and then been found out."
Broad believes Anderson could well have carried on performing at the highest level and leading England's bowling attack for a few more years yet, but speculation around his place in the side ahead of an away Ashes series in Australia is something that has played on Anderson's mind more recently.
Broad went on: "I think he could've just kept going. His action is very smooth, he's very fit, he's got a great hunger for it, but I know there were reservations in his own mind a little bit around the next Ashes series.
"Not so much could he perform, because he's got a lot of confidence in his own ability and he's knows he can do a job, but he didn't want the conversation of the team travelling to Australia and the news being 'a 43-year-old Jimmy Anderson' and 'can he cope over here?' and quite selflessly, he almost wanted it to be a young fresh, exciting bowling attack.
Broad, however, did offer a word of warning regarding the inexperience within England's bowling ranks.
He added: "England could easily go into a Test match this summer with a very, very inexperienced bowling group.
"If you don't play a Chris Woakes, Mark Wood has a rest and there's no Jimmy Anderson, you could have three seamers and a spinner out there potentially with 20 caps between them.
"That's quite scary as a Test captain I would have thought. We don't know how much Stokesy's going to bowl. We hope he does.
"But that could leave you a bit exposed. There's only one way to find out with bowlers, and that's to give them a go.
"There's going to certainly be a huge hole left by Jimmy Anderson that someone is going to have to step into.
"And not just by swinging the new ball. But by communicating, by keeping calm if the boundaries are leaking, by tactically being aware of what field works at certain grounds, pitches and times of Test matches.
"Ultimately, you don't learn that unless you're thrown in."
