Anil Kumble

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Kumble's career is marked by his unique bowling style: unlike his contemporaries, he was not a big turner of the ball, but relied primarily on pace, bounce, and accuracy. He was nicknamed "Jumbo", as his deliveries, for a spinner, were "as fast as a jumbo jet". In 1999, while playing against Pakistan, Kumble dismissed all ten batsmen in a Test match innings, joining England's Jim Laker as the second player to achieve the feat. That performance was rated by Wisden as the second best bowling performance of all time, and was commemorated by naming a traffic circle in Bengaluru after him and gifting him a car with the customised licence plate: KA-10-N-10. He was a member of the Indian team that was one of the joint-winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, where the title was shared with Sri Lanka. Kumble was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour in 2005.

In Their Own Story

The air at the second Test in Delhi in February 1999 was thick with anticipation. Kumble, having already taken nine wickets, was on the verge of history. His friend and teammate Javagal Srinath started deliberately bowling wide outside the off stump, so that Kumble could take the tenth wicket. Former opener Sadagoppan Ramesh later revealed that when he tried to catch Waqar Younis off Srinath's bowling, Srinath cautioned him to drop the catch, saying that "he had no business going after that catch". When the final wicket fell, Kumble had taken 10 for 74 runs, becoming only the second player ever to take all ten wickets in a Test innings.

Reader's Guide

Anil Kumble made his first-class debut for Karnataka against Hyderabad on 30 November 1989, taking 4 wickets and bagging a king pair. He made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka at Sharjah in the Austral-Asia Cup on 25 April 1990. His Test debut came in the same year when India toured England for a three-test series. It was the second test of the series played at Manchester and he picked up 3 wickets conceding 105 runs in the first innings. He took his first 50 Test wickets in 10 matches; the record remained the fastest by an Indian bowler, until Ravichandran Ashwin surpassed him. On 27 November 1993, he took six wickets for 12 runs in an ODI against the West Indies at Eden Gardens, Calcutta in the final of the Hero Cup, which was the best ODI bowling record by an Indian for very long time. In 1996, he emerged as the most successful bowler of the World Cup, taking 15 wickets in seven matches at an average of 18.73. On 6 October 2004, Kumble became only the third spinner in the history of Test cricket after Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan and the second Indian bowler after Kapil Dev to capture 400 Test wickets.

Did You Know?

• Kumble dismissed all ten batsmen in a Test match innings against Pakistan in 1999, joining England's Jim Laker as the second player to achieve the feat.
• He was nicknamed 'Jumbo' because his deliveries, for a spinner, were 'as fast as a jumbo jet'.
• Kumble took his first 50 Test wickets in 10 matches, which was the fastest by an Indian bowler until Ravichandran Ashwin surpassed him.
• He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in 2005.
• Kumble is a vegetarian and married Chetana in 1999; they have three children.