Virat Kohli made it very difficult for not just me but for bowlers..Didn’t feel like there was shift in dominance against Sachin Tendulkar...': James Anderson on bowling to the two Indian greats

England bowling great James Anderson compared bowling to Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar during his Test career. Anderson played 39 matches against India in his 188-match Test career. He performed against both India's batting legends, Tendulkar and Kohli, in his illustrious career. Anderson dismissed Tendulkar nine times in his Test career, and Kohli fell seven times to him.

The legendary speedster who picked up 704 wickets in his Test career compared bowling to both Sachin and Virat. He said that he got early success against Kohli during his first tour in England in 2014 but the batting great bounced back as a totally different player which made it very difficult for him to bowl.

“I had some success early against Kohli, the first time he came to England in 2014. I really exploited his weakness of outside off-stump, and then the next time I played against him – he had obviously gone back and worked on that – he was totally a different player. He really had taken his game to a different level, made it very difficult for not just me but for bowlers in general. I got him out 4-5 times in the first series and then didn’t get him out in the next I played against him,” Anderson told talkSPORT podcast.

Former England speedster who is the third highest wicket-taker in Test cricket, has termed experiencing a “shift in dominance” against Kohli, something he didn’t feel against Tendulkar. Anderson had dismissed Kohli four times in the latter’s first Test tour of England in 2014.

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“Against Sachin, for example, I didn’t feel like there was that sort of shift in dominance. With Kohli, there was definitely a shift. Found him a very difficult player to bowl at because he had that steely mindset, wanting to get into a battle. He’s very competitive and after that initial success, it was very difficult to bowl against.” Anderson added.

Kohli failed to perform in his first England Test tour; he just managed to score 134 runs at an average of just 13.50 in five Tests during the 2014 tour. However, in his next outing in England in 2018, Kohli was the standout performer with 593 runs with an average of 59.30 in five Tests, including a century each at Birmingham and Nottingham. Anderson was the leading wicket-taker in the series, which England won 4-1, Kohli never fell to the veteran.

The last time Anderson picked up Kohli's wicket was during the third Test match of the 2021 tour of England. Before that, Kohli was involved in a verbal altercation with Anderson on the fourth day of the second Test match at Lord’s. Anderson recalled how Kohli was more expressive than Tendulkar.

"Kohli was a slightly different character than Sachin. Sachin was very mild, mannered; very calm at the crease. Virat was more expressive with his emotions. Wore them on his sleeves and you can kind of see it. In his captaincy, when he celebrated his wickets. I tried as much as I could to get that feeling out of the equation and just try to think of him as a batter and not too much about who it was. It was difficult at times; we had many battles on the field,” said Anderson.