ANIL KUMBLE..."India test Captain"....A title truly deserving.....

ANIL KUMBLE..."India test Captain"....A title truly deserving.....

In case any of the cricket pundits or analysts or experts or for that matter any common indian man who knows a bit about cricket, is asked to name top 5 cricketers who influenced indian cricket, it would be a real disgrace if Anil Kumble does not figure in that list.India has never seen a match winner of his stature(probably will never see anybody of his determination and fighting ability).He has been a "Gentle giant" of Indian cricket, who never created any fuss about whatever was said about him or his performance, but just kept on chugging away unnoticingly with performances worth its weight in gold.After making his debut in 1990, with his spectacles on, looking at the initial stages of his career,probably nobody would have bet on him to be India's highest wicket taker in both forms of the game.Credited for his performances was Kumble in 1997 when he was made deputy to Tendulkar, and then one thought Anil could well be the next Indian skipper.
But destiny played a trick with him, as he encountered injuries and was not handled well by selectors and captains that followed Azharuddin.But not once did he make an issue or complain about it.One thing worth mentioning is that, former India skipper Mohd. Azharuddin must be applauded for the way he supported in making Anil Kumble a match winner,a fact Kumble himself has reiterated several times.

Coming to his performances,Anil's biggest thing happened when he took the "Perfect 10" against Pakistan at the Feroze Shah Kotla.Who can forget his 6-12 in the Hero cup final in 1993 against the Windies, and the 5 wicket haul at Johannesburg in 1992, at the early stage of his career.The list goes long and long.........As he progressed, critics came back at him saying that Kumble was just a match winner at home, and was a failure abroad.That was what his statistics said, but then rarely did India as a whole do well abroad!!!! So why only Kumble to be held responsible!!!!But on the 2002 English tour and the 2003-04 Australia tour he showed what Anil Kumble could do to strong batting line ups.He also won us our first test series on Pakistan soil in 2004 and in WestIndies in 2006.And when not a single indian batsman scored a century on the whole of the 2007 English tour, Anil scored a ton in the last test at Oval, his first test match hundred in his 17th year as an international cricketer.

Has anybody played on the field with a bandaged broken jaw, inspite of knowing he could aggravate it and jeopardise his career? Nobody can ever match such kind of commitment.The way he used to attack the batsmen, even in case of dead scenarios in test matches, showed his passion for the game.A true legend of the game is what he is.One can never remember any controversy linked to him. Though aggressive on the field, he is not one in the sledgers' category,nor did he get back at people who mouthed words at him.He just let his performances speak for him.And now at the twilight of his career,as captain of the Indian test team finally,he has been rewarded for his efforts,his dedication and commitment. Hats off to Anil Kumble !!!!!!

P.S: These thoughts are not exhaustive,as the blog is intended to give a short and sweet tribute to India's test captain.

Team India's overseas test victories....a look back into the golden era of the fab-five....Sachin,Dravid,Kumble,Sourav,Laxman

March 14th 2001.....a day written in golden letters in the history of Indian cricket.Two batsmen under pressure,the last recognized pair battling to save the team from an Innings defeat.A defeat that could well have put both their careers in jeopardy,if not ended.A defeat against the world champions,who felt they just had to play another day of test cricket to claim the coveted Border-Gavaskar trophy. Well ...and what a day it turned out to be. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid chose this day to mark themselves as stars in world cricket.After following on,India piled on runs on the 4th day of this 2nd test of the series at the hallowed Eden Gardens at Kolkata,and then the "Turbunator"-Harbhajan Singh, who claimed a hat-trick in the 1st innings,weaved his web around the Aussies to bowl India to an astonishing come-from-nowhere victory.India went on to win the series with a nail biting win in the 3rd test at Chennai.
This win instilled confidence into a battered team for the battles ahead.For India had been rocked with match fixing scandal in 1999-2000 and nobody beleived India could beat a battle hardened world Champions Australia,and the 1st test at Mumbai led to talks that the Aussies would whitewash the Indian team.

Well...the best was yet to come.For India had star players over the years,but were mere travellers when they toured out of India.They had won a series in England, a test match at Melbourne,one in Newzealand and WestIndies.Apart from that India was just a team any side could brush aside,outside India, despite having the famous spin quartet in their ranks,that could run through sides any day,and legends like Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar.
This is being said with all due respect to those legends,for yours truly was not cricket follower of their era and writing only on basis of entries in record books.

But then Indian cricket was supposed to be blessed with a middle order that probably will go down as the finest to play ever for India.And with this also came the expectations of them delivering to win series' abroad.Rahul Dravid,Sachin Tendulkar,Sourav Ganguly,VVS Laxman....well to add to this middle order India got a swashbuckling explosive dynamite called Virender Sehwag to pummell the opposition into submission.This, thanks to captain Sourav Ganguly's mastermind (not to forget coach John Wright here as well) of making an opener out of Sehwag.The bowling was led by the fighter Anil Kumble and flamboyant Harbhajan Singh.The fast bowling was like musical chairs,only Zaheer Khan managing to deliver well if not consistently,and Javagal Srinath was fading towards the end of his career.With such cricketers at their disposal,Ganguly leading aggressively,Rahul Dravid batting like "GOD" ,Team India began to rise up its winning quotient abroad.

As i put down this blog, I would like to recall the overseas test victories achieved by India till date,after March 2001.While every victory is worth its weight in gold, only those achieved against non-minnows would count very high...hence Zimbabwe and Bangladesh do not rank there at the top for me.For the matter of fact India has never won a series against a very strong,full fledged Zimbabwe side,in Zimbabwe.But let me forget that for now!!!!

So here i go with India's overseas wins in Chronological order...
Kandy
Port Of Spain
Headingley
Adelaide
Multan
Rawalpindi
Kingston
Johannesburg
Trent Bridge.
Well to add to these were the narrowly missed ones at Sydney,Cape Town,Antigua....

Ok then...let me begin with my rankings of these victories.....
No.1- Beat Australia at Adelaide 2003
No.2- Beat South Africa at Johannesburg 2006
No.3- Beat England at Trent Bridge 2007
No.4- Beat England at Headingley 2002
No.5- Beat Pakistan at Rawalpindi 2004



Now the question.....why do i rate them in that order?
India's only series win among these victories was in Pakistan 2004 and Kingston 2006,but still Rawalpindi comes at no.5 and Kingston does not make the list!!! The full fledged sides to be beaten were South Africa 2006 and England 2002,apart from Pakistan.So why cant they be no.1 and no.2??? India won at Port of Spain beating a good Windies side,and that began the winning sequence outside sub-continent.Also we beat a strong Sri Lanka with Muralitharan,without having Tendulkar and Laxman play that series.So why should they not enter this list ??!!!The Adelaide win was without facing Warne and McGrath...so why should it come at no.1????
All these things went through my mind when i began my analysis[or whatever!!! :) ]

When i recalled all those wins, starting from Kandy,it fell out because it was acheived in the subcontinent,though we had a young side without Sachin and Laxman.And as the numbers show,India have always played Muralitharan well.So India had to win a test in Srilanka,no matter what!!!But India was bamboozled by Murali in the very next test match at Colombo.That was why i eliminated Kandy.

Port of Spain- That was a fighting test match which could have swung either way till the end.India were led by brilliant hundred by Sachin Tendulkar,his 29th in tests to equal Sir Don Bradman.The young pacers Nehra and Zaheer came to the party to get India a first innings lead.When the top order crumbled in the 2nd Innings,with Sachin falling for a duck and Dravid failing to repeat his brave performance from Guyana in the first,Ganguly and Laxman resurrected India to set a decent total for the Windies,which had a formidable line up in Gayle,Lara,Hooper,Chanderpaul and Jacobs.But a spirited bowling display gave India their 1st win in the Carribean since 1971.This was a brilliant team display by India worth enough to rank in the top 5.I put it into No 1,straightaway as it was the first of the out-of-the-sub-continent wins since 1986.I recalled further and in came Headingley.

Headingley- I remember this as the test match of the trio,the only instance in an international match where Dravid-Tendulkar-Ganguly scored hundreds in an innings.Also this win came at the back of a thrashing at Lord's, and a battling draw at Trent Bridge.So a win here was a must to stay in the 4 match test series.This match marked the beginning of Rahul Dravid's evolution from a Superb batsman into a legendary one.I came up with lots of reasons to mark Headingley at no.1-An Innings win achieved after Sourav Ganguly's brave decision to bat 1st under overcast conditions,the way Sanjay Bangar and Dravid countered English bowlers and the counter attack by Sachin and Sourav under fading light on day 2, Kumble and Harbhajan spinning England into a web in their own backyard.....phew....one brilliant test match to be remembered.So it was Headingley and PoS now at 1 and 2,as i moved to Adelaide.

Adelaide- Well... December 15th 2004 should go down as another golden day in Indian Cricket history in remembrance of this test match.Right away Adelaide took the No.1 spot for me pushing down Leed and PoS.Reasons..........India went 'down under' billed as favorites by the pundits to lose the series 4-0!!!!!And India lost Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh as they went into this match.Zaheer had taken a 5 wkt haul in the previous drawn game at Brisbane and everyone knows why Aussies were wary of Harbhajan Singh at that period of time.And lo.......Aussies amassed 400 runs on the first day on a featherbed at the Adelaide Oval powered by captain-in-waiting Ricky Ponting's smashing double hundred.Trailing by 556 ,India lost 4 wkts for 85 runs including that of Sourav Ganguly,who had scored the knock of his lifetime at Brisbane-144 blistering runs taking the fight to the Aussies who tried to get under his skin. Well a follow on was beckoning and what do we see.....history repeating!!!!! Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman again become the nemesis for the Aussies and take India to 523.Dravid getting his 1st hundred in Australia,a glorious 233 and Laxman a 148 decorated with smacking drives and silken flicks....Only a draw looked a possibility after India finished their 1st innings on day 4.But a man called Ajit Agarkar had other thoughts..He ripped through the Aussies with 6-41 ,including claiming Ponting for a duck.In the midst of this were those 2 gems of spitting legbreaks from Sachin Tendulkar to remove Steve Waugh and Damien Martyn.Not to forget Anil Kumble bowling Gilchrist round his legs,when he threatened with a counter attack(Kumble also had a 5 for in the 1st Innings).And most often than not we have seen Indian openers folding for single figures in 4th innigns of a test.This was not to be here...Sehwag and Chopra began well in pursuit of the 230 needed.Despite minor hiccups in between,with Dravid and Agarkar fittingly at the crease India clinched the win on day 5.The scenes of Rahul Dravid kissing the crest on his blue India baggy still linger in my mind and gives me goose bumps when i remember it.Woooh!!!!!
And thus for all the emotional and cricketing reasons,Adelaide climbs to the top of my list.
And then came the Pak tour in 2004....
Multan- Well this test match is remembered for 3 big reasons.One-India's first ever test match victory on Pakistan soil,Two-Virender Sehwag becoming the first Indian to score a triple century in test cricket,Three-The controversial declaration by skipper Rahul Dravid when Sachin Tendulkar was not out on 194.India piled up 675 riding on Sehwag's 309 and Sachin's 194 and on the flat track,young Irfan Pathan took 4 wkts to bowl Pak out for 407.Following on, Pakistan crumbled again,this time to the wily Anil Kumble's guile who took 6-72.Some notable memories from this test were Yuvraj Singh's two pieces of magic on the field in the 2nd pak innings,when he removed Yasir Hameed with his bowling(he had scored 91 in the 1st) and a superb one handed direct hit to run out the dangerous Pak captain Inzamam ul haq for a duck.Well....since it was a test win against Pakistan,it ranked straight into top 5 at number 4,for a win against Pakistan was everything an indian fan always wished for.No 4 because the other 3 on the list were more hard fought in terms of conditions and India's form.
Immediately followed was defeat at Lahore.....then caravan moved to Rawalpindi....
Sourav Ganguly came back into the team after an injury and won a very important toss on a green wicket.Balaji,Nehra and Pathan ran through Pakistan and it was left to the batsmen to bat Pakistsn out of the match and the series.Rahul Dravid produced a well compiled masterly 270,his highest test match score.He was ably supported by 70's from Laxman and Ganguly.This after losing Sehwag off the 1st ball of the innings and Sachin for 1.India piled up 600 and then Kumble and Balaji rocked Pakisatn once again.Seems to be a fairly simple test match strategy to win by an innings.But the most important aspect of this victory was that India won the deciding test match of the series,when most often than not the opposite happened.And what more ....it was India's first ever test series victory in Pakistan.So this win easily ranks there at No.3.Reasons it pushed down the wins at Trinidad and Multan.....Firstly,a series winning performance.And Trinidad was won in a low scoring encounter where any team could have won.At Rawalpindi India dominated the whole test match,apart from a short spell from Shoaib Akhtar when he claimed Sachin and troubled Dravid & Laxman.At Multan, once India scored 675 only 2 results were possible.At Pindi, after Pakistan were bundled out, there was all danger of India crumbling too,on a pitch which had something for the bowlers,India stuck their neck out and fought.Reasons Pindi did not surpass Adelaide and Headingley......Adelaide was won when India seemed to be in a threat of facing a follow on.Further when the match was heading towards a draw,India toppled a very very strong Aussie batting line up to clinch the win.Headingley was another innings win where India scored 628 after opting to bat first on a green wicket under overcast conditions.And under such conditions,Indian spinners won us the game.

So it was Adelaide,Headingley,Rawalpindi,Trinidad,Multan now......

India had a long wait now for their next valued overseas win that came at Kingston in June 2006.

Kingston-This win came after India had almost lost and almost won a test each earlier in the series.The last test of the 4 match series was at Jamaica.In a low scoring encounter,India was bundled out for 200 in the first innings,with Rahul Dravid scoring invaluable 81 runs.India was also without Sachin Tendulkar due to injury and Sourav Ganguly due to all the controversies that surrounded him.Harbhajan Singh spun the Windies with a 5 wkt haul,getting India a 97 run lead.This was like a 200 run lead on that wicket which looked like an Indian turf.Again the Indian batting failed 2nd time,Dravid scoring 68 runs worth its weight in gold to end up as the only batsman to cross 50 in the match.Chasing 269, Windies this time were rattled by Anil Kumble's 6-wkt haul,giving India their 1st series victory in West Indies.Well the only and the main reason that Kingston did not make my list was because it was against a West Indies team that was not its strongest and was in awful form.Yes,India did not have Sachin & Sourav and Sreesanth & Munaf were inexperienced,but in Yuvraj and Kaif,India had seasoned players.So this win did not even make my list,despite it being a series winning one.

When India landed in South Africa in late 2006,they began nightmarishly,losing the ODI series 4-0.Somehow managing to win the Twenty20 game in the last over,a confidence rattled India reached the Wanderers.With all their top order batsmen woefully out of form,awaiting them was the green top at Johannesburg under heavy cloud cover.A series defeat ,possibly a whitewash......everything was being said about.Adding to the pressure was the controversial comeback of Sourav Ganguly.But it was his batting in the previous practice game that instilled some confidence into the indian team.Batting first against an attack that had Pollock,Ntini,Nel,Kallis and Steyn,India fell for 249.Here was where Shantakumaran Sreesanth decided to make his mark on the international arena with a spectacular display of swing bowling,to dismiss South Africa for 84.This was a feat never achieved even by world champion Australia i.e. to demolish a South African batting line up with Gibbs,Kallis,Smith,Boucher for a paltry score.India scored 236 2nd time around,riding on Laxman's 73,thereby setting SA 402 to win.Zaheer-another comeback man,Sreesanth & Kumble shared the spoils this time to clinch India their first ever test match victory in South Africa.This is the only reason why it catapulted straight to No.2 on my list,pushing Multan out,but barely slipping behind Adelaide.It made the count over Headingley,Rawalpindi and Trinidad because it came against the 2nd strongest line up in the world-South Africa,under trying conditons at the back of 4 consecutive ODI losses and in the midst of controversy associated with Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell.Adelaide just made it only because it came "AGAINST AUSTRALIA IN AUSTRALIA" and out-of-nowhere.


The next overseas test win was the Trent Bridge test 2007.
After narrowly escaping with a draw in the 1st test at Lord's,Indian famed batting line up was under pressure to deliver this time around.For most of them it was probably the last english tour and was a chance to make it memorable.That was what happened.All top Indian batsmen played patient defining knocks,Zaheer Khan destroyed England with a 9-wkt match haul,ably supported by RP Singh.This win came up right there at No.3 pushing Trinidad out of the list.Reasons why i rank it above Headingley and Rawalpindi.....India did not have a Coach,after the "2007 World Cup first round knock out" and were embarking on a tough English tour after being at the receiving end of the public and the media.The bowling had only Zaheer and Kumble with experience.Also dropped from the team were Sehwag,Pathan and Harbhajan who were architects of all those overseas wins i talked about so far.And because the win came against an England bowling line up sans the Ashes winning quartet of Harmison,Jones,Hoggard and Flintoff,it could not surpass Adelaide and Jo'burg.I would've been tempted to put Headingley at No.3,but Zaheer's match winning performance prompted me to slightly rate TrentBridge higher.

As i put forward these thoughts, i sincerely hope India caps the TrentBridge win with a win at The OVal and thus claim a sries win in England after 21 years.


Disclaimer: All these opinions blogged down are purely the writer's opinion.Critical and Non-critical suggestions are welcome.