India skipper Virat Kohli’s dismissal on Thursday led to an outpour of emotions among English players with the 39-year-old James Anderson, who is generally measured in his celebrations, taking a leap and pumping his fists.
“He is such a big wicket. To bowl the ball exactly where I wanted it to and for him to nick it as well. There was some emotion in the celebration. I knew how important that was for the team. It is such a big wicket,” said the pace bowler to the media in an interaction.
Anderson said that England had planned a fourth stump line against the Indian batsmen.
“I feel like I have challenged Virat in that area before. He either played or missed or left it. He has always been good enough to sort of get through and, today it was just one of those days where he nicked it. Getting Kohli out that early was quite unusual,” Anderson added.
“What we try to do as a group is trying to challenge that fourth stump area, the defence as much as possible.”
The rivalry between Anderson and Kohli is set to continue in the remaining Tests as well since the veteran pace bowler is looking to play all the Tests and not alternate ones as had been the practice in recent times.
Injury to Jofra Archer has forced England management to play both Anderson and Broad together though the practice had been to play Broad in one and Anderson in the other.
Anderson said that Archer would be missed.
“He has been a really influential part of the team since he started playing for England. He will be a huge miss with what is coming up in the rest of the year. But I think this injury has been bugging him for quite a while. Hopefully this can be the end of it. He has been great for this team and we want him back, fully fit and firing.”