Kohli and I traded dominance, didn't feel like that with Sachin, says Anderson

Iconic England bowler James Anderson, who just concluded his historic 21-year-long Test career, reminisced about his experiences with two of India's cricket legends—Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli—saying that though he enjoyed bowling at both, Kohli was a tad more challenging.

Debuting in Test cricket in 2003, Anderson ended his international career only last season, though he remains active in county cricket at the ripe age of 42.

During his career, the former seamer succeeded in dismissing both Indian giants, sending Tendulkar back nine times and Kohli on seven. Discussing his encounter with Kohli, Anderson remembered, "I had some success early against Kohli the first time he came to England (2014). I actually targeted, he had a weakness outside off stump, actually targeted that and then the next time I played against him (in 2018) he'd clearly gone away and practiced that and it was like bowling at a different batsman.

Of course, it's worth mentioning that Tendulkar and Kohli were at different stages of their careers when they met Anderson. Tendulkar was in the twilight of his career while Kohli was transforming into one of the best batters in the world as Anderson was at his prime.

Kohli had actually taken his game to another level, Anderson admitted. "Made it very hard for not only me but for the bowlers in general and I think I got him out maybe four or five times the first series and then didn't get him out in the next series I played against him."

Anderson compared the two Indian greats and observed Kohli to have undergone a visible change in his game. "Against Sachin, for instance, I didn't feel there was that sort of flip in dominance. With Kohli, there was certainly a flip and yeah I found him a very tough player to bowl against because he also had that sort of steely mental approach."

Anderson spoke about Tendulkar as having a "God-like" aura, in contrast to Kohli's hot-headed nature. "Kohli wanted to get into a fight. He wanted you to know (that). He's extremely competitive and after that early success it was quite hard to battle him."

He went on to add, "With Kohli he was clear of a slightly different kind of character to Sachin who was very laid-back, very composed at the crease and Virat was more expressive with his feelings and wore his feelings on his sleeve and you could sort of see it with his captaincy when he celebrated wickets and all that."