England great James Anderson, who recently retired from international cricket after the 1st Test against West Indies, has revealed details of his on-field battles with India batter Virat Kohli.
Speaking to Sky Sports after his final Test, Anderson said: “You go so up and down. Some series you feel amazing and some not quite on it and a batter gets the better of you. Playing against Virat Kohli in the early days, you felt you could get him out every ball and then recently like you can’t get him out at all. You feel so inferior.”
Anderson and Kohli, the master of their respective arts, faced each other in 36 innings of 25 Tests. During those innings, Anderson bowled Kohli 710 balls and 560 of them were dots.
Kohli scored 305 runs off the remaining balls at a strike rate of 43 and an average of 43.5. Overall, Anderson got Kohli out seven times in Tests.
Out of those seven dismissals, five came in 2014 when a young Kohli found it hard to negate swing and seam of Anderson. The faced each other in 2016, 2018 and 2021 after that and Kohli clearly got better of the English great.
So much was Kohli’s dominance that Anderson couldn’t get him out even once on India’s tour of England in 2018 – four years after tearing the batter apart on 2014 tour.
All in all, Kohli and Anderson offered some exciting duels for the fans to watch with both bat and ball dominating each other at times.
Anderson retired from the Tests as the most successful pacer of all time. He played 188 Tests – second only to Sachin Tendulkar’s 200 – taking 704 wickets.
Anderson is third on list of all time highest wicket takers in Tests after Muthiah Muralidaran (800) and Shane Warne’s 708.