England vs India: James Anderson will look to repeat his 2014 performance against ‘bunny’ Virat Kohli

The big series between England and India kicks off on Wednesday, August 1, and both the teams have a lot to play for in the fight for the Pataudi Trophy, 2018. However, among other things, the rivalry between Indian skipper Virat Kohli and English seamer James Anderson will be a key attraction of this series.

In the last Test series that India played in England in 2014, Kohli had a forgettable outing, scoring a meagre 134 runs in 10 innings and he was dismissed by Anderson as many as five times in the entire tour. The English pacer did not forget Kohli’s plight during the last Test series that the two teams played – in India – in 2016-17. While the Indian captain belted the visitors at will, Anderson had tried to raise the issue of Kohli’s ordinary run in England, only to be taken on by Ravichandran Ashwin.

Ahead of this series also, Anderson took a dig at Kohli saying if the latter is of the opinion that his runs don’t matter but his team’s win, he was lying. The strategy was clear: to put more pressure on the Indian skipper who is yet to show his mettle in England as he has done across the globe.

Anderson dominated Kohli in 2014

The owner of 540 Test wickets simply doesn’t want to let go his ‘bunny’ in this series either. In the 2014 series that England won 3-1, Anderson made Kohli’s life difficult by making him struggle for every run he made. The pacer succeeded against Kohli by specifically targeting his weakness around the off stumps time and again. Besides the Test series, Kohli did poorly in the ODIs as well, not scoring a single fifty.

The English pacers will look to capitalise on his nervousness around the corridor of uncertainty on seamer-friendly wickets in the upcoming series as well.

In his advice to the English fast bowlers to see Kohli’s back early, former England captain Michael Vaughan said his front foot should be challenged. “Bowl outside off-stump and then throw the odd one in straight to get him playing across the line and scissor his feet,” according to a report in timesnownews.com.

Watch Virat Kohli’s dismissals in 2014 tour

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