"Playing against Virat Kohli in early days"- James Anderson relives rivalry with former Indian skipper

James Anderson retired from Test cricket after England won the first Test against West Indies by an innings and 114 runs. Gus Atkinson made the headlines as he took 12 wickets and left the Windies batters at his mercy.

However, once the Test match was done the focus was back on James Anderson and his legendary Test career. He picked up just one wicket in the first innings and took three in the second innings. He was almost unplayable in the second innings as the batters could not understand how the ball was moving.

James Anderson ended with 100-plus Test wickets against three teams in his career and he took 149 wickets against India, the most against a particular team. He bowled to almost three generations in the 22 years of his career. He dismissed Sachin Tendulkar nine times, Virat Kohli seven times and Shubman Gill six times in his career. Apart from them, he dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara 12 times in his career and Ajinkya Rahane eight times.

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However, it is against Virat Kohli that Anderson had a riveting rivalry. He dismissed him once in the 2012 series. Then in the 2014 Test series in England, Anderson accounted for Kohli's wicket four times in 10 innings. That was the lowest Virat Kohli ever was in his career. He scored just 139 runs across 10 innings in that series, his lowest-ever return in a Test series in England.

Kohli came back with a vengeance in 2016, 2018 and 2021. Between 2016 and 2018, Anderson did not dismiss him as Kohli scored 183 runs against him. In 2021, Anderson dismissed him twice with the former Indian skipper scoring 72 runs against him. Earlier this year in 2024, Kohli scored 8 runs in 29 deliveries against him without getting dismissed. India won the series 4-1.

In 36 Test innings, Kohli has scored 305 runs against Anderson off 710 balls, out of which 560 have been dots. Kohli has hit Anderson for 39 fours but has failed to clear the ropes against him. Kohli has a strike-rate of 42.95 against the English great but his average reads a decent 43.57. Anderson dismissed Kohli seven times across 25 Test matches.

James Anderson On Rivalry With Virat Kohli

Anderson in his final press conference mentioned his rivalry with Kohli over the years. It was one of the most enriching and anticipated rivalries.

"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," the legendary English pacer said to Sky Sports.

Anderson ended with 704 Test wickets. He was chasing Shane Warner's tally of 709 wickets at the start of the Test match and needed 13 more to get to 1000 international wickets as a seamer.

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