Indian skipper Virat Kohli reckons that as far as his team is winning runs don’t matter to him, but the English pace spearhead James Anderson says the Indian skipper has to be lying if he states that his individual form won’t be a factor in the upcoming five-Test series starting August 1.

Reflecting on Virat’s statement, Anderson said, “It doesn’t matter if he gets runs or not? I think he is telling lies there.”

In 2014, Kohli only managed to score 134 runs in five Tests In England and it was the worst performance in his Test career. It is a blot on his stellar career to this day, even though he scored 655 runs in five Tests against England in the home series (2016-17) to lead his side to a 4-0 win.

At the beginning of the ongoing tour, Kohli had stated that he intends to enjoy his time In England rather than obsess over his individual form as long as the team does well. Talking about the same, Anderson said, “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.”

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James has an outstanding record against Kohli, having dismissed him four times in six innings during the 2014 tour. However, Anderson struggled during the 2016 tour of India with modest returns of four wickets in three Tests.

Expecting Kohli to come hard in the upcoming series, Anderson said, “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 learned from that last series here (in 2014). 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.”

Interestingly, the current weather conditions in England could suit India more in the upcoming series. Virat has scored 301 runs in six limited-overs innings on this tour at an average of 60.2. India won the T20I series 2-1 and England claimed the ODIs by a similar margin. 

When Anderson asked about if Kohli can continue the form, he replied, “No. I think, it is a really difficult one to answer because you would think that the red ball swings more or does more off the seam. A batsman like Virat plays the ball so late that they have got so much time and they make you feel slow as a bowler. It is hard with the white or red ball. (But) sometimes when batsmen are trying to be more attacking in white ball cricket than the red ball, you might create more chances.”

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Anderson concluded by talking about the difficulties of bowling to stalwarts like AB de Villiers retired, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and Kohli, he said, “Well I don’t like bowling to any one of them to be honest. It is hard to pick one of them because they are all different in their own way. They have all got a lot of qualities. That’s what’s most impressive to not only be able to score 50 off 20 balls in a T20 but also get a 100 off 250 balls in a Test match. It takes a special batsman and special mentality to do that.”