Anil Kumble is a former Indian cricket captain, coach, and pundit who played Test and One Day International cricket for his country for 18 years. He is widely regarded as one of the top leg spin bowlers in Test cricket history, having taken 619 wickets and ranking fourth all-time as of 2022. He also took 337 wickets in the One Dayers.
On October 17, 1970, the legend of Anil Kumble was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, to Krishna Swamy and Saroja, both of whom were born in Kumbla, near Kasaragod, Kerala. He began playing cricket on the streets of Bangalore at the age of 13 and joined the “Young Cricketers” club.
After high school, he attended National Pre-University College Basavanagudi for Class XII. Kumble later earned a B.E Mechanical Engineering degree from Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering (RVCE) in 1991-92.
He is called “Jumbo” not just because his spinner deliveries are “as quick as a jumbo jet,” but also because his feet are unusually large, or “Jumbo”.
On November 30, 1989, Kumble made his first-class debut for Karnataka against Hyderabad, collecting four wickets and claiming a couple. He was then chosen to represent India Under-19s against Pakistan Under-19s, where he scored 113 in the first test and 76 in the second.
On April 25, 1990, he made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in Sharjah as part of the Austral-Asian Cup. In the final game of the series against Pakistan, he picked up two wickets. His Test debut came during India’s three-match tour of England the same year.
Kumble broke nearly every Indian record during a great but generally underappreciated career. He swallowed all 10 wickets in an innings against Pakistan in 1999 in Delhi. He became India’s first spinner to capture 300 Test wickets in December 2001, on home soil in Bangalore. He became the first Indian spinner to accomplish it in one-dayers a year later.
In August 2007, at The Oval, he passed Glenn McGrath’s 563 wickets and achieved what, judged by the sheer delight of his and the dressing room’s response, was possibly his most prized accomplishment of them. He broke the 600-wicket barrier in January 2008.
Legends of Indian Cricket
On November 8, 2007, Kumble was named captain of the Indian Test cricket team. He took over as captain from his state colleague Rahul Dravid, who quit in September 2007. He is the team’s lone leg spinner who has been named captain.
Kumble is the most successful Indian bowler in history and the fourth-highest wicket-taker in Test history. In Tests, he had 35 five-wicket hauls, eight ten-wicket hauls, and two one-day international five-wicket hauls.
Kumble bowled 40,850 balls in his whole Test career, the most for an Indian and the second-most in the world.
Kumble is also one of only six bowlers in history to have taken 900 or more wickets in their career, with 956.
Anil Kumble declared his retirement from international test cricket, first-class cricket, and list A cricket on November 2, 2008, during the third Test match against Australia in New Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla cricket stadium.
Mitchell Johnson’s final wicket of his career was taken by him. Matthew Hayden scored a four off the final ball of his test career, a low full toss. M S Dhoni was appointed captain of the squad following his retirement.
Read more: Cricket legends of India All Time
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