Anderson heads home for birth of second child

James Anderson cut short his celebrations at the end of England's crushing innings-and-71-run victory over Australia in Adelaide on Tuesday to set off for home where he will be attending the birth of his second child. England's team director, Andy Flower, confirmed Anderson's departure as the remainder of the squad arrived in Melbourne ahead of the team's three-day warm-up match against Victoria, adding that he is expected to arrive back in Australia ahead of the Perth Test.

Anderson, 28, claimed six wickets in the match including two key breakthroughs on the fifth and final morning but remained with the squad for only a few hours before boarding a flight back to London. He is the latest England cricketer to follow the example set by the current captain, Andrew Strauss, who missed a Test in Lahore in 2005 for the same reason, while most recently Kevin Pietersen flew back from England's World Twenty20 campaign in May for the birth of his of son Dylan.

While Anderson is sure to have been rested for the Victoria fixture, his journey is the furthest of its type that any player has yet had to make, and it will leave him just two days to re-acclimatise ahead of the third Test in Perth on December 16. While Flower admitted it was "not ideal", he stressed that it was important for the players to maintain their work-life balance, even in the midst of a series as significant as the Ashes.

"He left last night, and he's going to be there for the birth of his child," Flower said. "We hope everything goes well, and he'll be back a few days before the Perth Test. It's not ideal, not perfect, but we try to get the balance right between our commitments to England and our responsibility to the individual and family. His wife and kids come ahead of this, but we try to get the balance right. It's not great that he'll have to be on this plane all the time, he'll have a bit of jetlag, but that's what we're dealing with.

"We've set a precedent in the past for making sure that people can be back home for the birth of a child if possible and if that's what they want. If that's not necessary in their particular circumstances then it would be great to have everyone here all the time. But he should be back and in working order for the third Test."

At any rate, Anderson did not miss much of a post-match party, because as Flower was at pains to point out, the series is far from over, and despite the apparent disarray that has been sweeping through the Australian squad, the onus is on the touring team to keep their focus through to the end of the trip.

"They were pretty muted, as far as I know," Flower said of the team's celebrations. "There's a long way to go in this series. We work hard for any victory, and to win a first-class game takes an enormous amount of effort and skill - and the same goes for Test matches, even more so. It's good for the guys to let their hair down, but they are focused on what's ahead. We know how serious the challenge is ahead of us."

With Anderson temporarily out of action, and Stuart Broad also flying home due to a torn stomach muscle - though not until the end of the third Test - the attention now turns to the search for a replacement fast bowler, with Ajmal Shahzad, Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan all expected to line up at the MCG on Friday for what is in effect a three-way shoot-out.

Flower, however, didn't quite see it that way, and said that he already had an indication of which player he would like to slot into the team for a venue that is starting to regain its reputation as one of the fastest and bounciest wickets in the world.

"You don't judge people on one performance," Flower said. "Obviously, we have ideas in mind who would replace Broad. But we will get 270 overs of viewing our potential replacement, and I'd prefer to emphasise some of the qualities of whoever takes his place, rather than that person to be another Stuart Broad. They are individuals with their own qualities that should be celebrated, and used.

"It's really unlucky [for Stuart], because he's been an integral part of our side and our relative successes over the last couple of years. It's not good for him; it's not good for the side, but these things happen. We weren't totally naive in thinking we'd get through the whole Test series without injuries to any of our quicks, and we thought it was a priority to get some of our back-up quicks into good nick. They had a good run-out in Hobart; they'll get another one here against the Vics - and you've got to factor these things in.