"He had a weakness outside off stump" - James Anderson reveals the more difficult batter between Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar

England fast bowling legend James Anderson has stated that he found it harder to bowl to Virat Kohli than to Sachin Tendulkar. The 42-year-old said that after having the wood over the former on his first tour to England in 2014, he found it hard to get his wicket in later tours as he had become a different player.

Anderson dismissed Kohli on seven occasions in Test cricket and he got Tendulkar's wicket nine times, during the course of his career. He told talkSPORT:

"I had some success early against Kohli. The first time he came to England, I think it was 2014, he had a weakness outside off stump and I really exploited that. The next time I played against him, he had obviously gone away and worked on that and it was like bowling at a different player.

"He had really taken his game to a different level and made it very difficult for not just me, but for the bowlers, in general. I think I got him out maybe 4-5 times the first series and then didn't get him out in the next series I played against him."

He continued:

"Against Sachin, for example, I did not feel like that it was that sort of shift in dominance. With Kohli, there was definitely a shift and I found him a difficult player to bowl at. He also had that steely mindset, he wanted to get into a battle, he was very competitive and after that initial success, it was pretty difficult to come up against."

Anderson highlighted Kohli's personality and his mannerisms as a captain when bowlers got opposition wickets. He also revealed that he had more verbal altercations with Kohli than with Tendulkar, with whom he did not try to speak too much.

Anderson said:

"I think with someone like Kohli, he obviously was a slightly different character to Sachin. Sachin was very mild-mannered, very calm at the crease and Kohli was very expressive with his emotions and wore his emotions on his sleeve, you could kinda see it. You saw that with his captaincy, when he celebrated wickets, it really came out of him."

"I tried as much as I could to take that out of it and just imagine him as a right-handed batter and not think too much about who it was. It was difficult at times and we had many battles on the field. I definitely had more verbal battles with Virat than with Sachin. I didn't really say a lot to Sachin, I tried not to."

James Anderson feels he bowled as well he could have against both Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli

In a career spanning over 20 years, James Anderson faced Sachin Tendulkar between 2006 and 2012. He bowled to Virat Kohli between 2011 and 2022. The former pacer admitted that he bowled as well as he could have to both batters in his career.

"No, I don't think I would. I had good success against him (Tendulkar). I don't think I would have done a huge amount differently. Similar to Virat, really. I think I tried everything, I threw everything at him and sometimes, he was good enough to cope with it, sometimes I got the better of him," Anderson said.

"That is just the nature of cricket, when you play against someone so often there is going to be times when sometimes they come out on top and sometimes you come out on top."

The upcoming India-England five Test series will be played for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. It will replace the Pataudi Trophy, which the two teams contested for in England since 2007.