James Anderson, a bowling mainstay for England, has talked candidly about his experiences bowling to Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar, two of India’s greatest batsmen. In their respective Test careers, the former pacer—who retired from Test cricket in 2024—has dismissed Tendulkar nine times and Kohli seven times, more than any other bowler.
Particularly following the England series in 2014, Anderson’s arguments with Kohli attracted a lot of attention. The right-handed hitter, who was still making a name for himself as a Test player at the time, had a lacklustre showing, scoring only 134 runs in five Test matches. In that series alone, Anderson dismissed the Indian batsman four times by exposing and exploiting the weakness of edging deliveries outside off stump.
“When Kohli initially arrived in England in 2014, I had some early success against him. Anderson told the TalkSport Podcast, “I really took advantage of his weakness outside off stump, and by the time I played against him again in 2018, he had clearly gone away and worked on that — it was like bowling to a different player.”
I didn’t think there was that kind of change in power: James Anderson
Throughout the 2018 series, Anderson was unable to dismiss Kohli once as he amassed 697 runs, including two tonnes and three fifties.
“He had elevated his performance to a new level. He made it extremely challenging for bowlers in general, not just for me. After getting him out four or five times in the first series, I didn’t get him out at all in the second one,” he continued.
When discussing Sachin Tendulkar, however, the quick bowler had a different perspective. The Little Master was already a world-renowned figure when Anderson first encountered him.
For instance, I didn’t think there was that kind of change of power against Sachin. There was undoubtedly that about Kohli, and because of his steely mentality, I considered him to be a really challenging player to bowl at.”
Ahead of the forthcoming five-match series between the two nations, which begins on June 20, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) recently agreed to rename the Pataudi Trophy to the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
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