India’s star batter Virat Kohli often gets compared with his compatriot Sachin Tendulkar because of his dominance in international cricket over the years.

Kohli has 82 hundreds to his name across formats, only behind the legendary Tendulkar’s tally of 100 international tons.

Having announced his retirement from T20Is and Tests, it is unlikely that Virat will be able to surpass Sachin’s record of international centuries by playing just ODIs henceforth.

Recently, former England pacer James Anderson named who, between Kohli and Tendulkar, was 'most difficult' to bowl to.

During his illustrious Test career, Anderson engaged in unforgettable duels with both great batters from India. While English legend dismissed Tendulkar nine times, he got the better of Kohli on seven occasions.

Speaking on the talkSport podcast, Anderson recalled his battles against Tendulkar and Kohli, and when asked who is the most difficult batter to bowl to, he chose the latter.

Be it in 2014, 2016, 2018 or 2021, Anderson and Kohli were involved in unforgettable contests. While Anderson proved to be Kohli’s nemesis in 2014, the Indian talisman bounced back to dominate the England stalwart in the next two series. Overall, Kohli scored 305 runs against Anderson while averaging 43.57.

"I had some success early against Kohli, the first time he came to England in 2014. I really exploited his weakness of outside off-stump, and then the next time I played against him – he had obviously gone back and worked on that – he was totally a different player. He really had taken his game to a different level, made it very difficult for not just me but for bowlers in general. I got him out 4-5 times in the first series and then didn't get him out in the next I played against him," Anderson stated.

"Against Sachin, for example, I didn't feel like there was that sort of shift in dominance. With Kohli, there was definitely a shift. Found him a very difficult player to bowl at because he had that steely mindset, wanted to get into a battle. He's very competitive and after that initial success, it was very difficult to bowl against," he added.

Anderson also reflected on his contrasting battles with Kohli and Tendulkar, mentioning how the two were completely different personalities at the crease.

"Kohli was a slightly different character than Sachin. Sachin was very mild, mannered; very calm at the crease. Virat was more expressive with his emotions. Wore them on his sleeves and you can kind of see it. In his captaincy, when he celebrated his wickets. I tried as much as I could to get that feeling out of the equation and just try to think of him as a batter and not too much about who it was. It was difficult at times; we had many battles on the field," Anderson pointed out.

"I definitely had more verbal battles with Virat than with Sachin. With Sachin I tried not to. He was certainly at a different stage in his career when I played against him. He had this sort of God-like presence, and how he was held in India. It was incredible how the fans treated him and looked up to him. But as Virat's career went on, that became more and more like that for him. But at the start of his career, it wasn't quite intimidating," he further remarked.