What is it about India that always gets James Anderson on edge?
ESPNcricinfo staff18-Aug-2021James Anderson has more Test wickets against India than any other team. He has won two Man-of-the-Series awards against India at home and even has a Player-of-the-Match award in India, for the Nagpur Test in 2012. In fact, during that tour, MS Dhoni said Anderson was the difference between the two sides after England won the series 2-1. But behind all the wickets, Anderson also has a history of getting into verbal duels with India’s players, and the tension resurfaced at Lord’s in 2021.James Anderson was accused of shoving Ravindra Jadeja during India’s 2014 tour of England•Getty ImagesThe Jadeja tunnel incident, Trent Bridge, 2014
On the second day of the Trent Bridge Test in 2014, Anderson and Ravindra Jadeja had an altercation in the corridor on the way to the dressing rooms as they left the field for lunch. The Indian team management alleged Anderson had verbally abused and then pushed Jadeja. They made a complaint to the ICC, and Anderson was charged under Level 3 of the Code of Conduct, which meant that had he been found guilty, he would have been suspended for at least two Tests. England made a counter claim that it was Jadeja who had turned aggressively towards Anderson in the corridor and Anderson had only pushed him in self-defence.The incident caused a rift between the two teams, with India insisting Anderson needed to be punished for the offence while Alastair Cook, then England captain, said it was nothing more than a tactic from the visitors to unsettle his best bowler and try to get him suspended.ESPNcricinfo LtdIn the absence of video evidence of the incident, it was one team’s word against the other’s, and the ICC found Jadeja guilty of a Level 1 offence and fined him 50% of his match fees, something Dhoni was not at all pleased with.There was further shock and dismay for India after Anderson was found not guilty, with Dhoni maintaining that he had witnessed Anderson abusing and pushing Jadeja and had no regrets about reporting it to the ICC. Eventually, Jadeja’s guilty verdict was repealed after India appealed it, but the incident was being talked about as late as September, when Anderson told Sky Sports that it was one of the most stressful periods of his career.ESPNcricinfo LtdDon’t talk about our captain, Mumbai, 2016
Anderson had dismissed Virat Kohli four times in eight innings when India toured England in 2014. By 2016, when England toured India, Kohli was captain. He had a mammoth series, scoring a century and a fifty in Visakhapatnam and another fifty in Mohali before a double-ton in Mumbai. With England on the brink of going 0-3 down, Anderson, who had not been able to dismiss Kohli in the series, was asked whether he thought Kohli had improved since 2014. He was reserved in his praise, saying that while Kohli was a good player, home pitches hid his flaws.ESPNcricinfo LtdR Ashwin thought Anderson was not being a gracious loser and decided to tell him so on the fifth day of the Mumbai Test, walking right up to Anderson when he came to the crease. Kohli had to step in to hold his offspinner back and while he found the exchange amusing, his opposite number, Cook, said it was a bit of a “sour end” to the match.1:28
Cook and Kohli on the Ashwin-Anderson chatter
Did you just bounce me? Lord’s, 2021
On the third evening of the 2021 Lord’s Test, with England nine down after having snatched a small lead, Jasprit Bumrah attacked Anderson’s body with the short ball, pinging him on the helmet once and on the gloves and arms a couple more times. Anderson seemed to take exception to the tactic and had words with Bumrah at the close of play. The tense atmosphere continued into the next day, when Anderson had words with Kohli while bowling to him, and on the last day, when England returned the favour, bowling short balls to Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. Bumrah was antagonised by something in the morning session, and it led to a lot of verbals during England’s innings, with Kohli the main protagonist.ESPNcricinfo LtdWhile the details of what was said to Bumrah and Shami are unknown, the stump microphone did pick up some unpleasant language from Kohli towards England’s batters on the fifth evening. After the game, Kohli made a point of mentioning that the verbals directed at Bumrah and Shami in the morning session gave his side extra motivation when they came out to bowl.ESPNcricinfo Ltd
