India vs England – “Maybe Last Time”: India Great Gives His Verdict On Virat Kohli vs James Anderson Contest In Edgbaston

When the Jasprit Bumrah-led Indian cricket team gets down to business against the Ben Stokes-led England cricket team in Edgbaston on Friday, there will be a lot more at stake than just the series result. India lead the contest 2-1 and even a draw would suffice to register only their fourth Test series win in England. However, there are several sub-plots that will be in focus too. The Virat Kohli vs James Anderson contest is one such sub-plot. Kohli has faced 681 balls against Anderson and has scored 297 runs in Tests against the fast bowler, who has dismissed him seven times.

Anderson, the all-time third-highest wicket-taker in Tests with 651 scalps, is a month shy of turning 40. Former Indian cricket team pacer Zaheer Khan feels that it may be the last time Anderson and Kohli come up against each other in a Test match.

“The more you see this battle, the more you will enjoy. If in a contest, the figures of the rival players are almost equal, it gets interesting. Maybe it’s the last time that you are getting to see this contest. Because Anderson is not playing matches regularly and sometime in future he will have to say goodbye to this game. Maybe that point is very near. Maybe it’s the last time that you will get to see this contest because after this series the next time India face England in England, there will be long gap. It will be an exciting contest this time,” Zaheer Khan said in a discussion on Cricbuzz.

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“We saw the last time the way Anderson is controlling the ball, there will be problem for the batters. May be Virat Kohli will face problems too. Nobody finds it easy against Anderson. It will be a good challenge for Kohli.”

India’s Test squad: Jasprit Bumrah (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain) (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Mayank Agarwal