War of CricketAnil Kumble
Anil Kumble is India's most successful Test bowler in history and, since James Anderson's 704 wickets in 2024, the fourth-highest wicket-taker the format has ever produced. A fast, relentless leg-spinner nicknamed "Jumbo," he took 619 Test wickets in 132 matches between 1990 and 2008, headlined by only the second 10-wicket Test innings anyone has ever bowled.
A different kind of leg-spinner
Born in Bangalore on 17 October 1970, Kumble grew up idolising the Indian spin great B.S. Chandrasekhar before making his own first-class debut for Karnataka in 1989. He was picked for the 1990 Austral-Asia Cup and made his Test debut against England later that year, quickly establishing a method that broke the usual mould of the craft: rather than big-turning leg breaks, Kumble relied on pace through the air, steep bounce and pinpoint accuracy — deliveries "as fast as a jumbo jet" for a spinner, the source of his nickname. It made him lethal even on flat Indian pitches where conventional spin struggled to bite, and it carried him to more Test wickets than any spinner in history except Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne.
10 for 74 — one of only three in history
On 7 February 1999, in the second Test against Pakistan at Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla, Kumble took all ten Pakistani wickets in an innings, finishing with figures of 10 for 74. It remains only the second instance in Test history, after England's Jim Laker against Australia in 1956, and the only other bowler to do it since is New Zealand's Ajaz Patel, against India at Mumbai in 2021. Wisden rated it the second-best bowling performance in Test history; Bengaluru later named a traffic circle after him to mark it. Three years later, in Antigua against West Indies, Kumble bowled with a fractured jaw, strapped up with a bandage, after being struck by a Mervyn Dillon bouncer — and still dismissed Brian Lara, a feat of durability almost as celebrated in India as the ten-wicket haul.
A genuine one-day threat too
Kumble was never a Test specialist who tolerated the shorter format — he took 337 ODI wickets in 271 matches, and 1996 was his best year in both: he was the leading wicket-taker at that year's World Cup, with 15 scalps in seven matches at an average of 18.73, and finished the calendar year with 90 international wickets combined, more than any other bowler. He later played three seasons of the IPL for his home franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore, retiring from the tournament in January 2011. Off the field, Kumble trained as a mechanical engineer at Bangalore's RV College of Engineering before turning to cricket full-time, and as both captain and coach he was one of the earliest and most consistent advocates within Indian cricket for adopting the Umpire Decision Review System.
Captain, coach, cricket statesman
Kumble captained India in the closing years of his playing career and later coached the national team through 2016–17, a tenure that included a series win over England and a run of 19 unbeaten home Tests, before he resigned amid a widely reported rift with captain Virat Kohli. He went on to coach Mumbai Indians and, as head coach, Kings XI Punjab and its successor franchise Punjab Kings in the IPL, chaired the ICC's cricket committee, and was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in February 2015. He also holds the world record for the most caught-and-bowled dismissals in Test cricket (35), and at his retirement in 2008 he was the third-highest wicket-taker in Test history — a ranking since passed only by Muralitharan and, in 2024, by Anderson.
For Kumble's complete career record, see his player profile. Fellow leg-spin great Shane Warne remains the only specialist leg-spinner with more Test wickets, and Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan is the only bowler in history with more wickets outright.