By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
New Delhi(IANS) : A little over a year ago when Anil Kumble was asked at a press conference how he felt at not having captained India in Tests, his reply and his facial expressions said it all: he regretted having missed the coveted honour.
On Thursday night he was perhaps the happiest person when he was appointed to that post, fulfilling perhaps his last ambition as a professional cricketer.
The ace leg-spinner has led India in a solitary One-day International, but leading the country for the former India vice-captain is an altogether different honour. The mechanical engineer’s brains will now be tested in a different way when he leads the team out for the first Test against Pakistan at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground in Delhi Nov 22.
Little doubt that Kumble, 37, will walk down the stairs of the new Kotla dressing room with his mind going back to that foggy February afternoon in 1999 when he took all 10 Pakistani wickets in the second innings to win the Test almost single-handed.
With 566 wickets in 118 Tests and 337 in 271 ODIs, the Bangalore-based player has little to prove to anybody, as he often reminds. These are the best bowling statistics by an Indian at the highest level of the game.
Kumble, who retired from ODI cricket this March 30, is a level-headed player. He is essentially a wicket-to-wicket bowler who could have been more effective had injuries not taken their toll on his broad shoulders, chiefly because of the immense responsibilities thrust on them.
Kumble’s right shoulder has taken the brunt of bowling innumerable overs in a first-class career that began in 1989-90. A major scare came at the turn of the 21st century when a shoulder operation forced Kumble out of the game for 20 months. Many people wrote him off, but a resolute Kumble regained his place in the team and that too remaining as effective as ever.
Kumble announced his retirement from ODI cricket following India’s first-round exit from the World Cup, assured that his place in the pantheon of Indian cricket was safe.
He has also played for Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Surrey in the county circuit, bowled his heart out and taken a large number of his Test wickets on the helpful Indian pitches. But this cannot take away the sheen from the yeoman service he has rendered to Indian cricket.
The year 2003 was a lean one in low-profile Kumble’s highly successful career. But on the tour of Australia in 2003-2004, in the absence of an injured Harbhajan Singh, he bowled with a lot of penetration and finished with 24 scalps – the most on either side – in just three Tests.
That series gave a new lease of life to his career and he has not looked back since.
The start of Kumble’s Test career was not all that promising, though. Following an ordinary debut against England in Manchester in 1990, he was dropped, which forced him to seriously think about quitting the game for an alternate career.
Then the 1992 Irani Trophy tie against Rest of India in New Delhi brought the decisive turning point in his career as he captured a 13-wicket haul against the hosts and was on plane to South Africa for a historic Test tour a few days after that match.
Kumble performed well in South Africa and became a permanent fixture in the team.
He became the world’s ninth bowler, and second Indian after Kapil, to take 400 wickets. He is also the first Indian spinner – and the world’s third after Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan and Australian Shane Warne – to reach the 400-plus-wicket milestone.
Today, only Australia’s Shane Warne (708) and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (702) have claimed more wickets than the Indian.
Kumble is also the first Indian spinner to take 300 wickets, a milestone that he attained on his home ground, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, in the third Test against England in 2002.
A major highlight of Kumble’s career is his world record 10-wicket haul against Pakistan in 1999 in the second innings at Delhi’s Ferozeshah Kotla to spin India to a memorable victory.
With that spell, Kumble became only the second bowler in the 130-year Test history to have captured all 10 scalps in an innings. The only other bowler to do so was England’s Jim Laker, who performed the feat against Australia in Manchester in 1956.
In 1996, Kumble was chosen as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year and, in 2005, the government honoured him with the Padma Shri award.