So it’s official… what everyone thought was true has actually happened. Kumble is bidding the ODI game goodbye. More importantly… the countdown to tests have also started. (Cricinfo had earlier reported that… “Anil Kumble, India’s veteran legspinner, has said that the World Cup would probably be his last one-day tournament, a fact that would be an added incentive for him to do well at the event, starting in the Caribbean from March 13.” Read full story here.)
I really believed that Kumble was back in the One Day World Cup squad as a final present for the services rendered to the country. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. It’s just that, probably, hopefully, we won’t need to use two spinners in the team. I like the balance of three seamers, one spinner (Harbhajan), and Sehwag-Tendulkar-Yuvraj-Ganguly pitch in. Kumble is a great player, but as he has himself admitted, his one-day days are numbered.Looking at Kumble’s haul of 557 wickets in Tests (and 300+ ODIs)… it’s hard to see any spinner, even Harbhajan, surpass that.
In other words, like the end of the Kapil Dev era, we are now witnessing the end of Kumble’s reign. And being India’s greatest bowler ever, Kumble will surely be missed (in both ODIs (not sooo much in today’s scheme of things) but more importantly in TESTS.
But that sorrow for the passing legend is for later… let’s start the World Cup, already!!!
Another perspective here.
