Ind vs Eng: James Anderson missing his battle against Virat Kohli

Veteran England pacer James Anderson said he missed the battle against star Indian batter Virat Kohli in their ongoing five-match Test series.

The 35-year-old withdrew due to the birth of his second child and didn't feature in the series. Anderson's battle against Kohli has been one to watch over the years.

"You always want to play against the best players. And it's been a shame that he's not been a part of the series. We have had some great battles over the years,” Anderson told Jio Cinema.

Meanwhile, the 41-year-old lauded India pacer Jasprit Bumrah for his amazing spell in the second Test.

"With someone of his quality, you expect that standard from him. You know that reverse swing can play a big part in India and he's a great exponent of it. He's got a good pace and is very accurate, and very consistent. That yorker we saw to Ollie Pope, he's got that up his sleeve as well. It's not a fluke that he's got to number one in the world. He's a world-class bowler and from our point of view we weren't surprised that he put up a performance like that."

"There are not many better bowlers than Bumrah, Shami and Siraj. They're world-class bowlers. You put Ishant Sharma in there as well, and that's a really strong bowling attack."

Anderson is the player with the second most Tests in history, with 184 games under his belt and 698 wickets to his name. He talked about his inspiration during his early years and said that he watched Zaheer Khan bowl a lot.

"For me, Zaheer Khan was someone I used to watch a lot to try and learn from. How he used the reverse swing, how he covered the ball when he ran into bowl, that's something I tried to sort of develop on the back of playing against him quite a few times here," Anderson told JioCinema.

On comparing his longevity to other sporting legends, Anderson said, "Yeah, I guess you do look at things like that, but to be honest, I just go with the feel of me and my body. I don't feel like I'm 41 years and 200 days old. You know, I still feel young. I can keep up with the young guys in training. I can still bowl at the speeds that I want to, I can still deliver the skills that I want to. So, for me, that's the most important thing. Age is just a number and it's pretty irrelevant from my thought process," he added.

It must be noted India lead the series 3-1 with only one more Test to go which will be played in Dharamshala from March 7