"English fans will be thankful Virat Kohli is not playing"- James Anderson on Indian star's absence from ongoing Test series

Veteran England pacer James Anderson has had some sensational face-offs with star Indian batter Virat Kohli over the years and the cricket fraternity wished for more of it when England were set to tour India for another Test series in January this year.

However, Kohli withdrew from the series citing personal reasons. Anderson accepted that the visitors would have loved to come up against the world-class batter. But he also cheekily claimed that England fans would be thankful for Kohli not scoring big against their team.

Here's what James Anderson had to say on Jio Cinema about Virat Kohli's absence:

"I guess English fans will be thankful he’s not playing because he’s such a quality player. But from our point of view you want to test yourself, you want to come up against the best and he’s been someone who I’ve found really challenging to bowl at over the years and it’s a shame he’s not been playing."

Virat Kohli has scored 305 runs off the 710 balls bowled to him by Anderson in Tests. However, the veteran pacer has dismissed the former Indian captain as many as seven times.

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James Anderson on Jasprit Bumrah's incredible performances

James Anderson was also highly impressed with the way speedster Jasprit Bumrah has performed in the series so far, especially in the second Test in Visakhapatnam where the latter picked up nine wickets and won the Player of the Match award.

On this, Anderson stated:

"You know that reverse swing can play a big part in India and he's (Bumrah) a great exponent of it. That yorker we saw to Ollie Pope, he's got that up his sleeve as well. It's not a fluke that he's got to number one in the world. He's a world-class bowler and from our point of view we weren't surprised that he put up a performance like that."

Jasprit Bumrah had been rested for the fourth Test in Ranchi but has been reintegrated into the Indian squad for the final game in Dharamshala. With conditions likely to favor pacers, it could be an exhibition of high-quality fast bowling from both Bumrah and Anderson, who is nearing 700 Test wickets.