IPL auction 2024: Is James Anderson worth buying?

Unquestionably he does.

While still in the early stages of his coaching career, Anderson has already impressed Brendon McCullum enough to become a virtual mainstay in his slimmed-down coaching set-up.

What Anderson doesn’t know about bowling probably isn’t worth knowing.

Former South Africa captain AB De Villiers, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever T20 batters, believes franchises should be queueing up to sign Anderson.

“I would take him purely because there’s a lot of experience that can be shared with some of the young players – just his aura will give the bowling unit confidence,” he told his YouTube channel.

“This guy knows his game inside out.”

That is something Anderson himself would value, telling BBC Radio 4: “I’ve done a little bit of coaching since I finished in the summer, so I think opening my eyes up to something like that and experiencing it might help me grow my knowledge of the game and be useful further down the line.”

If Anderson – or his potential paymasters – do want to look for precedence, then one of the two men to have taken more Test wickets than Anderson is the late Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne, who played into his forties in the IPL.

He took 57 wickets in four seasons for Rajasthan Royals, and combined the role of captain and coach as they won the inaugural title in 2008.

Don’t bank against Anderson enjoying a similarly enjoyable Indian summer.