"Just Below Sachin Tendulkar...": England Great's Surprising Take On 'Fab Four' Of Cricket

Former England pacer James Anderson gave a memorable response on being asked about his views on the 'Fab Four' of cricket. In the current generation, the 'Fab Four' consists of India star batter Virat Kohli, Australia batter Steve Smith, England veteran Joe Root, and former New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson. Though Kohli announced his retirement from Tests and Smith hung his boots from the ODIs, the contribution made by both of them cannot be overlooked. Even Williamson and Root have achieved great heights in Test cricket.

Recently, legendary pacer Anderson, who retired from international cricket in 2024, was asked to compare the 'Fab Four' with India great Sachin Tendulkar.

"Just below Tendulkar," said Anderson on TalkSport podcast.

Anchor - “Where do those four (Virat, Root, Smith, Kane) compare with Sachin Tendulkar ?”

James Anderson - “ Just below Tendulkar ” pic.twitter.com/Tlgzx7f0s8

— CrickeTendulkar (@CrickeTendulkar) June 16, 2025

Popularly known as the "Master Blaster", Tendulkar is the greatest ODI and Test batter. In 463 ODIs, Sachin racked up 18426 runs, which are till date the highest by any batter. In Tests, Sachin hammered 15921 runs in 200 matches.

Apart from this, Anderson also opened up about bowling to both Sachin and Kohli. Anderson, who is the most successful fast bowler in the history of Test cricket, dismissed Sachin 9 times and Virat 7 times during his career.

When asked about the most difficult batter to bowl to, Anderson ended up picking Virat over Sachin.

Anderson explained that although he dominated Virat during their first meeting during 2014, the Indian batter bounced back and went on to have a good record against the pacer. Sachin, on the other hand, did not have such an intense clash with him and there was never a major 'shift in dominance'.

"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 said on the TalkSport podcast.

"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."

Topics mentioned in this article

England Cricket Team India Cricket Team James Anderson Sachin Tendulkar Virat Kohli Kane Williamson Cricket