'India would be happy to see him retire now' - Nick Knight feels James Anderson's absence would boost India's confidence

Former England opener Nick Knight opened up on James Anderson's absence from the upcoming series between India and England. While all the talks have been around India being without the services of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, England will be playing their first series against India at home in over two decades without Anderson. Knight felt England had to move on from the experienced bowler.

The former English batter felt India would be happy not to face Anderson in the series, who was a constant in the team for a long time. He then opened up on the renaming of the Pataudi Trophy to the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy and claimed it had come at the right time. Knight recalled the time when he played with Anderson.

"England will move forward now. And they’ve got plenty of talent, plenty of abilities like all these guys. But I’m certainly sure that India would be happy to see him retire now. And I think the last series that India won (in England) was in 2007, probably Jimmy was part of that series as well. So, he’s been a constant," said Nick Knight in an interview.

"It’s a very, very fine tribute. And the right sort of timing for the Jimmy Anderson-Tendulkar trophy. Just the kind of right thing to do in such an iconic series. I played with Jimmy when he first came in. I was sort of someone at the back end of my career. And he was just starting out. You could see right from the start he was a lad who had great control of the swinging ball," Knight added.

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Anderson was very difficult to face, had enough nip and pace, as well, and the numbers look after themselves: Knight

The former English player claimed Anderson possessed the skills to nip the ball into or away from the batters with little margin as well. Knight felt Anderson did not give away a lot to the batters with his bowling action either. Knight concluded by saying that Anderson's numbers spoke for themselves, while he was a difficult customer to deal with.

"And very little discernible difference between the one that went in and the one that went away. I think that of all the little skills he had, technically, that was a great skill. It’s very difficult to predict which way the ball was going out of his hand. Very similar action as well. Did not give away tell-tale signs. So, he was very difficult to face. Obviously, he had enough nip and pace as well. Yeah, I mean, obviously the numbers look after themselves," Knight concluded.

Anderson was a part of all the series India played in England from 2007 to 2021. His career started in 2003, the year after which India drew the Test series against England in England. He was a part of the squad in 2007, which India won. 2011 was the first series of the 21st century which India lost in England and the trend continued in 2014, 2018, and 2021 series.