James Anderson is never fulfilled playing Kohli: 'Would love to bowl at Virat again'

JAMES Anderson, the old England warhorse who has taken most number of Test wickets on Planet Earth as a pace bowler, has an insatiable hunger when it comes to challenging India batter Virat Kohli.

The 39-year-old, who returned to the Three Lions' Test side in the rescheduled fifth match of the 2021 series against India at Edgbaston earlier this month, picked a crucial fifer in the first innings that prevented the visitors from adding on their big total. England eventually won the match by seven wickets to level the series 2-2.

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Anderson recently said that he would like to have a go at Kohli, one of his prime enemies on the ground, again and for that, would like to stick around till England met India again. Kohli has been one of Anderson's favourite preys as the latter has picked his wicket on no less than seven occasions.

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“Well, I do not know. I would love to bowl at Virat again. So, maybe I will stick around for the next tour,” Anderson told Sony Sports.

The lanky pacer dismissed Kohli five times during India's 2014 tour of England, which was disastrous for both Kohli and the Asian side. However, the batter made a strong comeback during England's tour of India in 2016-17 and didn't give his wicket. The Indian, currently is in the middle of his worst phase with the bat and that perhaps encouraged Anderson more to meet him soon again.

Forer India pacer Zaheer Khan said the next meeting might be the last time when the two greats faced one another.

“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,” Khan told Cricbuzz.

“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 a long gap. It will be an exciting contest this time,” he added.

India will tour England again in 2025 while the Three Lions will play India in India in 2024.