Not Virat Kohli! James Anderson called this Indian legend his all-time best batsman.

By Samira Vishwas On Dec 18, 2025

According to James Anderson, the best batsman of all-time is none other than former Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar played 664 international matches for India in his 24-year-long career from 1989 to 2013 and scored 34,357 runs. Virat Kohli is at third place in the list of batsmen who have scored the most runs in international cricket. Kohli has scored 27,975 runs in 623 innings of 556 matches.

This interesting choice has been made by Anderson in a video shared by Cricket on TNT Sports on In the same video, Anderson was also asked questions about the best players of England and Australia. As England’s best player, Anderson chose Joe Root, who is England’s highest run-scorer with 21927 runs in Test, ODI and total international runs. In the list of batsmen who have scored the most runs in Test cricket, Root (13704 runs) is second after Sachin Tendulkar (15921 runs).

Jimmy Anderson chooses his cricket goats 🐐🏏 pic.twitter.com/S0Bz5BJwYF
— Cricket on TNT Sports (@cricketontnt) December 16, 2025

James Anderson’s choice for Australia was veteran spinner Shane Warne. Warne is the highest wicket-taker for Australia in Test cricket, with 708 wickets to his name. He took 1001 wickets in a total of 339 matches in his international career.

Anderson also chose his all-time best in different categories. According to him, Australia’s Glenn McGrath is the best fast bowler, South Africa’s Jonty Rhodes is the best fielder and as the best all-rounder he chose England’s Ian Botham and not Jacques Kallis. However, Kallis is the only player in the world who has completed 10,000 runs and 250 wickets in both Test and ODI formats.

When it came to the all-time best captain, James Anderson chose Australia’s Steve Waugh. Under Waugh’s captaincy, Australia won the 1999 ODI World Cup and won 41 of the 57 Test matches played between 1999 and 2004.