Former England fast bowler James Anderson enjoyed many great battles with Virat Kohli during his playing days, but when asked to pick the best batter of all time, he ignored Kohli and instead mentioned his former India teammate’s name. The best batter, according to Anderson, who is the third-highest wicket-taker in international as well as Test cricket, is none other than Sachin Tendulkar.
Tendulkar played a total of 664 international matches for India across formats during his 24-year-long career from 1989 to 2013 and scored 34,357 runs. Kohli is third on the list of batters with the most runs in international cricket. The former India skipper has scored 27,975 runs in 623 innings of 556 international matches.
In a video shared on X by Cricket
on TNT Sports, Anderson, who retired from international cricket last year in July, was also asked to pick the best English and Australian cricketers.
Jimmy Anderson chooses his cricket goats 🐐🏏 pic.twitter.com/S0Bz5BJwYF
— Cricket on TNT Sports (@cricketontnt) December 16, 2025
For the English, he mentioned Joe Root’s name. Root is England’s highest run-getter in Tests, ODIs and international cricket and also holds the record of scoring the most 100s for the 2019 ODI World Cup winners. In the list of batters with the most runs in Tests, Root is only behind Tendulkar.
As for the Australian player, Anderson cast his vote for legendary spinner Shane Warne. Warne is Australia’s highest wicket-taker (708) in Test cricket, and he finished his Australia career with a total of 999 wickets in 338 matches.
According to Anderson, Glenn McGrath of Australia is the best fast bowler, South Africa’s Jonty Rhodes is the best fielder, England’s Ian Botham, and not South Africa’s Jacques Kallis, is the best all-rounder.
Kallis is the only cricketer in the world to score 10,000 runs and take 250 wickets in both Test and one-day format of the game.
When asked to pick the best captain of all time, Anderson mentioned Steve Waugh’s name. Waugh led Australia to the 1999 ODI World Cup title win, and under his leadership, the Baggy Greens won 41 out of 57 red-ball matches from 1999 to 2004.
