James Anderson reflects on bowling to Kohli and Tendulkar ahead of ENG vs IND Test series

The five-match England vs India Test series is all set to begin on 20 June 2025. Ahead of the series, former England Test pacer James Anderson has opened up about bowling to Virat Kohli, the former India Test skipper. While speaking on the TalkSport Podcast, Anderson discussed exploiting Kohli’s weakness outside the off stump. 

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Kohli had a forgettable England tour, scoring only 134 runs in five Tests, and Anderson dismissed him four times. He said: "I had some success early against Kohli the first time he came to England (2014). I really exploited his weakness outside off stump and then the next time I played against him (in 2018), he had obviously gone away and worked on that — it was like bowling to a different player."

"He’d taken his game to a different level. He made it very difficult, not just for me, but for bowlers in general. I think I got him out four or five times in the first series, and then I didn’t get him out in the next series at all," he further added. Kohli made a fantastic comeback in the 2018 England tour, where he scored 593 runs in 10 innings, and Anderson failed to dismiss him even once.

“I found him a really difficult player to bowl at” - Anderson on Kohli

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The former pacer also opened up about bowling to former Team India great Sachin Tendulkar. He also offered a comparison regarding his approach to bowling to both Sachin and Kohli. "Against Sachin, for example, I didn’t feel like there was that sort of shift in dominance. With Kohli, there definitely was, and I found him a really difficult player to bowl at because he also had that steely mindset," Anderson said.

However, with this upcoming series, a new era in Indian Test cricket is set to begin under their new Test captain, Shubman Gill. Veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin retired from international cricket during the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. 

More recently, both veteran batters and former skippers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli announced their retirements from the longest format of the game. Hence, without these three stalwarts of the game in the side, it will be a huge challenge for India — and obviously, for their new Test skipper.

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