Adrian Lewis has backed himself to challenge the current PDC elite after averaging more than 112 in a 5-1 exhibition win over Gary Anderson, declaring that the field facing Luke Littler and Luke Humphries is weaker than the one he encountered during his own world-title-winning years.

Speaking to Online Darts in Northampton, the two-time world champion maintained that he could return and win a third title. Lewis has been away from the professional circuit since April 2023, although Anderson is among those encouraging him to come back.

Lewis questions the depth beneath Littler and Humphries

Lewis won successive world titles in 2011 and 2012, then reached another Alexandra Palace final in 2016. Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen and Anderson were among the rivals he faced during those years.

“I don’t think Luke and Luke Humphries are playing against the same kind of calibre that we were playing against. I really don’t,” he said. “Probably 10 or 15 years ago, I think we had a better top 10 in the world rankings than what they’ve got currently.”

His assessment of the established players beneath the two Lukes was blunt: “I don’t think any of them are as good as what they were a couple of years ago. I don’t think the standard’s as good as what it was then. No, I don’t.”

Lewis pointed to both the tournament calendar and the commitments players take on outside ranking events. “That’s probably partly due to all the tournaments they’re playing at the moment,” he said. “Not only that, you can’t just say that, because I think also they’re picking to do the exhibitions as well. Obviously, then they’ve got sponsor commitments and this, that and the other. I think you’ve got to prioritise your ranking. That would be the thing I’d be doing.”

A third world title remains the draw

Lewis’s last ranking title came at a Players Championship event in July 2022, less than a year before he announced his break. He has not abandoned the ambition of adding to his two World Championships.

“I still believe, in this current moment in time, I can be one of the best players even now,” he said. His answer on whether that could extend to winning a third world title was unequivocal: “Yeah, definitely.”

Q-School and the Challenge Tour offer a potential route back, although Lewis first wants to “make sure I enjoy the competition side of things”. “I’d love to be back, Phil,” he told the interviewer. “Like I said, I told you off camera before, I’d love to be back. I don’t want to just push myself straight into something.”

Alongside his win over Anderson in Derby, Lewis’s recent exhibition appearances included a 4-0 victory over Fallon Sherrock in Northampton. “I’m practising really well, so everything’s going really well at the moment,” he said. “Looking forward to the future.”

Lewis added: “I’m playing really well. I’m knocking in a lot of nine-darters as well, so I’m feeling really good.”

Anderson used their Derby meeting to encourage him back onto the circuit. “Me and Gary get on really well and he’s my old mucker,” Lewis said. “Last night was a great game. It really was.”

The Scot also gave him an “ear-bashing” about returning. “He just said, ‘Listen, you’d better come back in the next couple of years.’ And that was it. I said, ‘Right, okay.’”

“It’s a mental drain”

Exhibition bookings give Lewis control over how often he plays. He can accept or decline an appearance without the ranking implications that accompanied his previous life on tour.

“At the moment, I’ve got the flexibility where I can just turn up to whatever I want to turn up to,” he said. “When I’m on the tour, it’s completely different.”

Lewis agreed that he was happier than he had been for a long time. “When you’re on the tour, everybody knows it’s become a right drag,” he explained. “It’s like a roller coaster. Your form’s up, your form’s down, and then you have to try to pick yourself back up again. It’s pretty difficult.”

His concerns about the workload facing current players include the pressure they carry between events. “It’s a mental drain because even when you’re not actually at the event, you’re still mentally thinking about it,” Lewis said. “So you’re still putting yourself under the pressure in the practice room and everything else, and it becomes too much.”

Alongside his preference for prioritising rankings, he acknowledged the commercial compromises involved as darts grows. “I think you’ve got to sacrifice some of your ranking money in order to get the sponsorship,” he said. “I do. Unfortunately, that’s what it’s coming down to at the moment.”

The autumn schedule was a particular focus during his own preparations, with the European Championship, Grand Slam and Players Championship Finals preceding the Worlds. Lewis would begin building towards Alexandra Palace in September.

“The back end is massive,” he said. “That is your time then to start putting the work in, ready, building up. If you’re playing really well, you think you don’t need to put as much work in because you know you’re going to play really well. Whereas some people might think, ‘I need to put the work in because I’ve been rubbish for the last so many weeks or months, and this is where I need to start building. You only get out what you put in, and that’s with anything you do.”

Taylor reunion brings a change of roles

Lewis will partner Taylor at the MODUS International Pairs in Portsmouth from 23-28 November. They won four World Cups together for England, although this time Lewis has found himself reassuring his former mentor.

“I can’t wait,” he said. “Phil’s a bit more apprehensive, where he’s like, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen.’ I said, ‘Listen, just enjoy it.’ This is the advice I’m trying to give him when he’s probably a lot more experienced than me anyway. But just enjoy it. We’ll try our very, very best.”

Lewis joked that they had been “roped into it”, with each apparently being told the other wanted to take part only if they could play together. “We’ve gone back so many years,” he said. “I would never say no to him.”

Lewis rejected the suggestion that the distance between them during their playing careers was simply a falling-out. “I think what it was is because I’d broken into the top 16, and at the time, probably for a couple of years, I was around that 16 mark where I was playing him all the time,” he explained. “When you get too close to someone, it’s difficult to get the same bite. It’s pretty difficult. So that was the reason. It wasn’t like a falling-out as such. Yeah, we had the odd dramas, like anybody does, but I think that was probably the main factor.”

For Portsmouth, Lewis said: “I don’t expect him to be vintage Phil Taylor, don’t get me wrong. But as long as I can hit the scores and he can hit the finishing, I think we’ll be in with a good shot.”

“If we can get through the group stage and there’s a crowd in, I think that’ll spur us both on,” he added. “If we can get through that first stage, that first phase, I think we’ll have a good chance.”

Netflix, Littler and a different kind of darts

Lewis was among the viewers of Netflix’s Beat Luke Littler, which ended with Sherrock winning £501,000 by defeating Littler over a single leg.

“Personally, I think it was fantastic,” he said. “Everybody’s obviously going on about the fact these are professional players. Well, they can’t be professional players if they haven’t got a Tour Card. I don’t class myself as a professional player because I haven’t got a Tour Card. I might be a two-time world champion, but I’m not a professional player.”

Lewis acknowledged that he is paid for exhibitions. The Netflix event’s eligibility rules excluded anyone who had ever held a PDC Tour Card, meaning he could not have entered that particular competition.

With some participants struggling under the lights, he questioned how weaker players would have fared. “If they aren’t doing it, what would happen if it was somebody who was a lesser player than them? It would be even worse,” he said.

At the time of the interview, Lewis had yet to face Littler himself. “I was expecting it tonight, obviously after the previous couple of days, but I don’t know what’s happened,” he said.

A separate, one-off Netflix head-to-head with Littler would appeal to him: “Yeah, definitely. Of course it would.”

Lewis had also discussed a Royal Rumble concept. “I thought it was a fantastic idea,” he said. “To me, there are too many tournaments, and I think there have been for a long, long time now. I think what needs to happen is they need to change things up a little bit and get things a bit more interesting.”

Littler’s challenge and Taylor’s place at the top

Littler will head to Alexandra Palace seeking a third successive world title and a fourth consecutive final. Lewis backed his chances: “He certainly can. I think out of all the players, if anybody can do it, he can do it.”

Lewis competed through periods of dominance by both Taylor and Van Gerwen. On how Littler’s rivals could catch him, he said: “By beating him on a regular basis. I think the only way you can knock somebody’s confidence is by beating them. That, in return, will put them in the mindset of, ‘I don’t want to be there.’ And then that’s when it starts going downhill. I don’t want to see that happen to Luke. I think he’s a great lad. He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen, if not the best. I just hope that doesn’t happen to him.”

Lewis added: “But I think he’s got to put the work in now. I think he knows they’re on his heels now, and he’s got to put the work in.”

Comparing Taylor, Van Gerwen and Littler, Lewis said: “I’d still go Phil with his longevity. I think he’s got to be number one.”

Of Van Gerwen, he added: “People forget already how good he was. He was a fantastic player.”

He acknowledged the personal pressures Van Gerwen had been experiencing and suggested the Dutchman remind himself: “I am the three-time world champion. I’ve won this, that and the other. Just relax. I’ve got nothing to prove to anybody.”

A possible future in punditry drew a joke that Lewis would probably be “like a Roy Keane”. He was less definite about whether darts needed that approach: “Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. I’m not one to speak about that.”

The Taylor partnership takes Lewis to Portsmouth from 23-28 November. Beyond that, the deadline for entering the 2027 Q-School is 14:00 GMT on 28 December, with the event running from 4-10 January.