In extending birthday wish to Anil Kumble, Gautam Gambhir pays greatest tribute

Kumble is India’s leading wicket-taker in Test matches and is also the third-highest wicket-taker in international cricket.

Former Indian captain Anil Kumble is celebrating his 49th today. Gautam Gambhir, who has been a long admirer of the leg-spinner, took to Twitter to extend his wishes and hailed the leggie as India’s greatest ever match-winner. The left-hander also called him the best leader he played under.

Anil Kumble, Gautam Gambhir (Twitter)

Gambhir tweeted: Birthday wishes to India’s greatest match winner @anilkumble1074! Have learnt so much from you and you are the best leader that I have played under! Thanks for inspiring generations of cricketers.

Kumble is India’s leading wicket-taker in Test matches and is also the third-highest wicket-taker in international cricket. He was also a successful coach for Team India, but had to step down after his relationship with captain Virat Kohli became ‘untenable’.

“It is all about a game of cricket at the end of it. If you simplify like that the job becomes a lot easier. The moment you start putting importance to result, wins, trophies then it puts more pressure on the players. So the learning is just to back off and help the players relax and when they are relaxed they tend to perform better,” the leg-spinner spoke about the lessons learnt in his coaching stints with different teams.

He is back at the helm and this time, he has been appointed as the director of cricket operations at Kings XI Punjab. He also held mentorship roles at Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians.