James Anderson vs India: A history of wickets and verbals

James 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.

The 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.

In 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.

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Cook and Kohli share their views on the Ashwin-Anderson altercation

While Alastair Cook felt it was unnecessary for Ashwin to get involved, Kohli believes it is all part of the game

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 Eventually, Jadeja's guilty verdict was repealed after India appealed it, but the incident was being talked about as late as September, when Anderson told Sky Sports that it was one of the most stressful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.

Don'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.

R 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.