Former England pacer James Anderson, in a conversation with TNT Sports, picked his favourite stars from each country. Though he thought for a while about picking the stars from various nations, Virat Kohli remained his uncontested choice when it came to India.
Cricket is the other name for legacy carried forward. For every nation that plays the sport, time and again, one or the other player has carried the legacy of the game forward through a generation. Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli are such legendary players from India.
The two players are from different timelines, as Tendulkar ended his 24-year-long career when Virat Kohli soon entered his prime. Both are Indian greats, and Kohli has chased and broken many of the Little Master’s records, which even the GOD of Cricket has acknowledged. One of the records includes the most ODI centuries in the history of cricket.
England great picks Virat Kohli as the uncontested ‘favourite’ in Indian cricket
Talking of legacy in the sport, one of England’s greatest ever bowlers, James Anderson, has also carried a legacy for over two decades in international cricket. With 991 career wickets, Anderson remains one of the greatest ever pacers in World cricket. He is also the highest wicket-taker for England in both Tests and ODIs.
As the England legend was asked to pick a favourite player from each of the mentioned nations, he took a brief pause before naming a star from each nation; however, when it came to India, Anderson named Virat Kohli as his favourite cricketer, unhesitatingly.
Anderson sidelined the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, and Rohit Sharma to claim Kohli as the best among them. Though he had admitted Tendulkar was the toughest batter he had bowled from India. Anderson has had the privilege to bowl against both of the Indian maestros.
Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath snubbed as James Anderson picks his favourite Australian cricketer
Anderson has played the most games in his career against the Aussies. This is due to the Ashes, which are played on a fixed schedule. Anderson was a fixed member of England’s Ashes squads since his inclusion in the red-ball side in 2003.
With his abundant experience in the island nation and the biggest rivals of the English, Anderson did not name any of those explosively talented batters as his favourite from the nation, nor did he opt for a like-for-like pacer like McGrath or Brett Lee, but rather picked legendary spinner Shane Warne as his favourite Australian cricketer.
Warne passed away in 2022 and has had a splendid career, marking 1001 scalps in his career, though he had played many fewer matches than his peers like Anderson, McGrath, and Muralitharan.
James Anderson’s startling favourites from top-ranked International teams
Other than these two nations, James Anderson rightly picked England veteran Joe Root as the favourite cricketer from the nation. The great is England’s highest run-getter across ODIs and Tests and is the greatest ever to play Test cricket in the world.
Anderson’s other shocking picks include Babar Azam from Pakistan, ignoring the likes of their great fast bowlers Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, and Waqar Younis, and also a pack of legendary batters from the nation.
He picked Tim Southee as his favourite Kiwi cricketer, AB de Villiers as the favourite South African, and Sanath Jayasuriya, the former Sri Lankan captain, as his favourite from the Lankan islands.
JAMES ANDERSON PICKS HIS FAVOURITE CRICKETER FROM EACH COUNTRIES. (TNT Sports).
– James Anderson picks Virat Kohli as his favourite Indian Cricketer. pic.twitter.com/W9013UxOo1
— Tanuj (@ImTanujSingh) January 4, 2026
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