ENG vs IND, 2018: Virat Kohli Lies If He Says His Runs Don't Matter - James Anderson

India’s captain Virat Kohli had recently made a statement in which he said that it doesn’t matter to him if he doesn’t score runs for his team. Kohli said what matters more to him is the success of the team.

However, England’s pack leader James Anderson said Kohli is lying if he is saying that his runs don’t matter for the visiting team.

Well, there is no doubt that Kohli is India’s best batsman. Thus, Indian captain has to be on the top of his game if India is to savour success in the English conditions.

Kohli will aim to improve his England resume:

Kohli had a poor England tour of 2014 in which he scored 134 runs in the five Test matches. Therefore, the talismanic batsman will like to tick England on his impressive cricket CV.

“It doesn’t matter if he gets runs or not? I think he is telling lies there,” Anderson said while talking to PTI.

In fact, Anderson had troubled Kohli on the previous tour. The swing master went on to add that Kohli would be desperate to score runs in the English conditions.

“For India to win here, of course, it matters. Virat will be desperate to score runs for his team, as you would expect from the captain and one of the best players in the world,” Anderson said.

England’s experienced campaigner Anderson had his wood on Kohli as he had bagged his wicket on four occasions on the last tour. So, Anderson expects Kohli to learn from the previous dismal tour.

Kohli will bounce back strong, believes Anderson.

“Today, cricketers learn from not only watching match footage but also from past experiences. So I would expect a batsman of Kohli’s quality to have learned from that last series here (in 2014). I am sure he (Kohli) is practicing hard at certain aspects of his game and that will make the battle between him and not just myself, but him and the rest of our bowlers, a really exciting one,” Anderson said.

Anderson went on to add that Virat Kohli plays the ball as late as possible. Thus, it makes bowling at him hard. Kohli had done a fine job on the South African tour and he would like to repeat his performance.

“A batsman like Virat plays the ball so late that they have got so much time and they make you feel slow as a bowler. It is hard with the white or red ball. (But) sometimes when batsmen are trying to be more attacking in white ball cricket than the red ball, you might create more chances. Overall it is hard to say.”