ENG vs IND | There’s nothing you can do: Kevin Pietersen lauds James Anderson after opening burst vs India

England were on a roll early on Day 1 under overcast conditions against India at Edgbaston, picking up two wickets in the first session of play. The hosts dismissed openers Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara early in the day with the help of the evergreen James Anderson, who was returning from an ankle injury.

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The veteran pacer removed Gill with a length delivery, edging him to the slips and then plating up a full length ball, which moved away slightly from the batter. Pujara was caught in no man’s land with his bat hanging in front of the off stump. The ball kissed the outside edge of the bat before going into the hands of Zack Crawley.

“There’s nothing you can do,” Pietersen says. “Sometimes you’ve just got to say, ‘it’s the great Jimmy Anderson.’”

“There will be balls you have to play at, which I think that was one of,”he further added.

Anderson’s probing spell kept India at their toes and provided opportunities at the other end.

“Jimmy Anderson, on occasions, is just too good. What do you do? You watch (Glen) McGrath, (Wasim) Akram, (Shaun) Pollock, he’s as good as, if not better, than a lot of those guys, in these conditions in particular.”

Speaking about India, Pietersen launched a staunch defense for former Indian captain Virat Kohli, who has failed to score big runs for a while now.

“The guy is a great player, the guy is a genius,” Pietersen said. “Name me a player that hasn’t gone through a rough patch in his career.”

“Some of the greatest players have been dropped, they’ve actually just been parked.

He further added that Kohli gets the pressure because of his greatness and life has come a full circle for him.

“He’s obviously going to get the pressure, but we’ve all been there, it’s the circle of life, you are never good all the way around that circle.”

Virat Kohli however, did not do well in the first innings of the games, scoring just 11 runs of 19 balls. He edged a Matthew Potts delivery into the stumps in the 25th over of the first innings.