England bowling icon James Anderson has opened up on his battles against Indian superstars Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli during his 21-year-long career, revealing who he found the toughest to bowl to among the two great batters.
Anderson hung up his boots last season to end a glorious 21-year career. The legendary fast bowler was a menace to some of the greatest batters across the globe, and Tendulkar and Kohli were among those who faced the wrath of his bowling.
The Lancastrian legend found success against Tendulkar and Kohli, dismissing the Indian batting masters nine and seven times, respectively.
“I had some success early against Kohli the first time he came to England (2014). I really exploited, he had a weakness outside off stump, really exploited that and then the next time I played against him (in 2018) he’d obviously gone away and worked on that and it was like bowling at a different player,” Anderson told talkSport.
Tendulkar and Kohli faced Anderson at different stages of their careers, which had a bearing on their battles. However, Anderson, who is still playing county cricket at 42, found Kohli tougher to bowl than Tendulkar.
Kohli tougher than Tendulkar: Anderson
“He’d (Kohli) really taken his game to a different level made it very difficult for not just me but for the bowlers in general and I think I got him out maybe four or five times the first series and then didn’t get him out in the next series I played against him.
“Against Sachin for example I didn’t feel like there was that sort of shift in dominance with Kohli, there was definitely a shift and yeah I found him a really difficult player to bowl at because he also had that sort of steely mindset.”
Anderson referred to Tendulkar as a ‘God like’ figure while Kohli was an in-your-face character.
“Kohli wanted to get into a battle. He wanted you to know (that). He’s very competitive and after that initial success it was pretty difficult to go up against him.
“With someone like Kohli he was a slightly different character to Sachin who was very mild-mannered, very calm at the crease and Virat was more expressive with his emotions and and wore his emotions on his sleeve and you could kind of see it with his captaincy when he celebrated wickets and stuff like that,” added Anderson.
Tendulkar and Kohli are widely popular cricketers who defined the game with their personality, ability and quality. While Tendulkar scored a whopping 15921 runs (highest of all time) in 200 Tests, Kohli, who recently retired from Tests, amassed 9230 runs in 123 Tests.
Meanwhile, the launch of the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy, which was proposed to replace the Pataudi trophy, has been postponed in the wake of the Ahmedabad Airlines tragedy.
The five-Test series between India and England will begin on June 20 at Leeds.
James Anderson found success against Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, dismissing the Indian batting masters nine and seven times, respectively. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
