Rohit-Kohli Vs Anderson-Broad: Analysing Significances Of Two GOAT Pairs

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma | Stuart Broad and James Anderson [Source: @ImTanujSingh, @WRish_17/x.com]

The Indian Tour of England 2025 marks a significant transition phase for both teams. The visitors enter the series without their two biggest batting stalwarts of the last decade, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, both of whom retired after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year. Meanwhile, England will be without their legendary bowling pair of James Anderson and Stuart Broad.

With four of the biggest names in cricket from both nations not playing in this series, the question arises: which of these two pairs will be missed more?

Statistical Comparison: Career Numbers

India's Missing Duo

England's Missing Duo

Analysing The Two Partnerships

Anderson and Broad formed the most prolific bowling partnership in Test cricket history. They picked up 1,039 wickets together in 138 Test matches they played as teammates. Notably, they went well past the previous record of 1,001 wickets by Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.

On the other hand, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma played 47 Test matches together. In these 47 games, the duo has a combinedly scored 2,847 runs.

Impact Assessment

England's Challenge Without Anderson-Broad

England starts the series with three fast bowlers, Brydon Carse, Chris Woakes and Josh Tongue. The two specialist bowlers among the three are - Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue. The two bowlers have played only eight Tests between them, and spinner Shoaib Bashir has 16 Tests under his belt. Without Anderson and Broad, England might have to rely on Ben Stokes taking on a bigger bowling workload.

The Anderson and Broad pair proved their effectiveness and efficiency throughout their careers. Especially the ability of both of these bowlers to extract something out of nothing made them very important. 

India's Challenge Without Rohit-Kohli

The Indian team is coming into the series with a more or less new-look batting line-up. Players like KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal will have to step their game up further to make up for the absence of the two legends.

But if we go back to the last two years of Test cricket, then we will find that the Indian batters have done well enough. It was Rohit and Kohli who were not at the peak of their game during this period, and in some cases, they weighed down the team. 

Conclusion

Based on statistical and impact analysis, we can say that Anderson-Broad represents a more significant loss than Rohit-Kohli. The English bowling duo's 15-year partnership yielded over 1,300 wickets and established them as proper momentum-changing assets for the team. Their contribution to England's bowling seemingly had more impact than Rohit-Kohli in India's batting. 

The absence of Anderson and Broad fundamentally alters England's bowling strategy, particularly given their dominance in home conditions. At the same time, India's batting transition, though challenging, can be managed through emerging talent like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill taking on leadership roles.

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