'GOAT' Virat Kohli easily replaceable, claims James Anderson

England National Cricket Team pace-bowling great James Anderson has showered rich praise on the India National Cricket Team batting legend Virat Kohli following his retirement from Test cricket.

Although James Anderson acknowledged that Virat Kohli's shoes are enormous to fill in the longest format of the game, he opined that there is enough talent in Indian cricket to replace him.

James Anderson speaks on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's Test retirement

Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will not travel to England for the upcoming five-match Test series as they recently announced their retirement from the format via their official social media handles.

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Tributes poured in from across the cricketing world after the retirement of the duo, and the latest one to speak on this matter is the English bowling legend Anderson.

Anderson, who is regarded as one of the greatest pace bowlers of all time, labelled Kohli and Rohit Sharma as great players and highlighted the need to find their replacements quickly.

James Anderson mentioned that the pool of talented players in Indian cricket is very large and the BCCI selectors have started to include aggressive players into the Test team from the Indian Premier League (IPL).

“Great players. There will be a new captain because Sharma has retired. Kohli, one of the greatest Test batters that’s ever been. There’s big shoes to fill there, but they’ve got a huge amount of talent in their squad,” James Anderson said on TalkSport.

“You just have to watch the IPL. They are bringing players into Test cricket from the IPL now who are just so attacking, aggressive, and fearless.”

Virat Kohli falls short of 10,000 Test runs, Rohit Sharma fails to play 75 games

Kohli retired from Test cricket after playing 123 matches and in those matches, he batted in 210 innings, scoring 9230 runs at an average of 46.85, to go with 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries.

Virat Kohli fell short of the 10,000 Test runs mark, which at one time looked quite achievable with the way he was going in the purest format of the game.

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma said goodbye to Test cricket with 4301 runs in 67 matches at an average of 40.57. He once expressed his desire to play 75 Test matches for India, but he fell short of that mark.

India is going to be such a tough challenge even at home - James Anderson

James Anderson further ordered Ben Stokes & Co. to fully focus on the upcoming five-match Test series as India will pose a tough challenge and not think about the Ashes way too far in advance. He said:

“It’s a huge year with the Ashes coming but it is important to get some momentum going. If I’m being honest, looking back at my career, that happened too much where, 18 months out from an Ashes the management and even the players starting to look towards that and actually forgetting what’s in front of you. India is going to be such a tough challenge even at home. They are a strong side."

Also Read: Shubman Gill kicked aside! Ravichandran Ashwin names deserving candidate for India Test captaincy