Taking aim at the Indian captain, Virat Kohli, England pace spearhead James Anderson has said that if Kohli thinks his runs does not matter, he is probably lying and is not entirely honest.
"It doesn't matter if he gets runs or not? I think he is telling lies there," Anderson said in an exclusive interview with Press Trust of India.
"For India to win here, of course, it matters. Virat will be desperate to score runs for his team, as you would expect from the captain and one of the best players in the world," Anderson further added.
This could well be the watershed moment for Virat Kohli, as back in 2014 he struggled to even get a toe in and managed to score on 134 runs in five Test. He is determined to rectify this record, and showed that he can master the England bowling when he peeled off 655 runs in the home series in 2016-17.
Anderson vs Kohli will be a contest within the battle
Incidentally, Anderson was the person who tormented Kohli the most in 2014 and even when the Indian captain plundered runs for fun in his own backyard, the fast bowler had famously said that he will once again struggle when there is assistance for the fast bowlers.
"Today, cricketers learn from not only watching match footage but also from past experiences. So I would expect a batsman of Kohli's quality to have learnt from that last series here (in 2014)," he quipped.
"I am sure he (Kohli) is practising hard at certain aspects of his game and that will make the battle between him and not just myself, but him and the rest of our bowlers, a really exciting one," England's leading wicket-taker in Tests further added.
However, the conditions in England at the moment is quite similar to India as there is heat wave which has made the pitches quite barren and bereft of any assistance to the seamers. Anderson though is hopeful for few spells of rain to spruce up the wickets.
"We have had a hot few weeks (and a hot summer overall). So the pitches may well be dry and suit India more than us. That is something we will take into account when we come into that series. We will be hopeful that we have a couple of weeks of rain before the series starts and be able to grow some grass on the wickets," he said.
