 Kumble set to enter 100 Tests club
 Ahmedabad, Dec 17: The 'Silent Assassin' is all set to reach another milestone in his illustrious international cricket career spanning a decade-and-a-half. Anil Kumble, whose scholarly looks and even-mannered demeanour would make him mistaken for an academician rather than a cricketer, will tomorrow enter the 100-Test club of cricketers numbering 33 when he plays in the third and final Test against Sri Lanka. The Bangalore stalwart is set to become only the fifth from the country to belong to this exclusive club when his name in the Indian list of players for the Test is exchanged before the toss at the Motera Stadium.
The champion bowler would follow in the footsteps of his illustrious compatriots Kapil Dev (131 Tests), Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar (both tied at 125) and Dilip Vengsarkar (116) to reach the elite club after making his debut against England at Manchester in 1990. In this age of showmanship, Kumble might be an anachronism with his genteel manner and calm approach, but those traits have not diminished his immense contribution to the Indian team's success story from the 1990s. It has been a long and eventful journey for this unassuming cricketer from Karnataka who has already become India's most successful bowler in Test cricket with a bag of 478 wickets in his kitty that includes his most famous Test-record equalling haul of 10 for 74 in an innings against Pakistan at the Ferozshah Kotla ground in Delhi.
That feat in 1999, with which he equalled the record held solely by England off-spinner Jim Laker since 1955, put the unorthodox leg-spin ace among the truly great bowlers in the history of the game. People used to deride him for his lack of big purchase, but he has shown in clear terms that what's more important is not the amount of turn a slow bowler gets - that may result only in beating the bat - but the ability to take wickets by sowing confusion in the minds of batsmen with nagging accuracy, subtle and effective variations of pace, and a little turn.
"At the end of the day you have to create doubt in the batsman's mind, no matter whether you are a spinner or fast bowler... it takes just three inches to get the edge," he said after the second Test in Delhi where he returned with a match haul of 10-157. Kumble's hallmark right through his international career that started in 1990 has been his pin-point accuracy. Batsmen make mistakes by not playing him with the bat as the ball would be zeroing in on to the stumps. On surfaces that offer a bit of uneven bounce, he becomes doubly dangerous.
He has had his quota of setbacks, but Kumble has shown tremendous ability in fighting his way back from adversity, whether it was his rotator cuff problem with his bowling shoulder that put him off cricket for almost a year, or the broken jaw that he suffered and with which he batted bravely against the West Indies in the Caribbean islands. Kumble's biggest plus points have been his self-belief and determination to fight to the end, qualities with which he has endeared himself to the Indian cricket fans. (Agencies)
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