'In the second innings...,' Former England pacer James Anderson calls Virat Kohli 'best batter'

Former England pacer James Anderson has said that India batter Virat Kohli is the best when it comes to chasing. Anderson made the comments while speaking on 'Tailenders Podcast.'

"His record chasing is absolutely phenomenal. I don't know if there's been a better batter in the history of the game while batting second or chasing down scores," said Anderson.

"In the 50-over format in particular, the number of hundreds he has scored in the second innings, chasing down scores is ridiculous," Anderson added.

Kohli is one of the all-time run scorers in ODI cricket with a total of 13,906 runs. The Indian star has 7,852 runs out of his total ODI runs in chasing - only second to Sachin Tendulkar's 8,720.

Kohli, however, is unmatched in terms of hundreds scored while chasing - hitting 27 of them out of his total 50 ODI tons. Sachin is a distant second with 17 ODI tons while chasing.

The former English pacer, who has the most Test wickets for a fast bowler in the world, had his moments against young Kohli but admitted that it became hard to get him out recently.

"You go so up and down. Some series you feel amazing and some not quite on it and a batter gets the better of you. Playing against Virat Kohli in the early days, you felt you could get him out every ball, and then recently like you can’t get him out at all. You feel so inferior," James Anderson had told Sky Sports.

Kohli was most recently named Player of the Match in the final of the T20 World Cup 2024, scoring 76 runs off 59 balls against South Africa.

Anderson, on the other hands, retired couple of months ago with 704 Test wickets to his name - third most behind Muttiah Muralidaran (800) and Shane Warne (708).