Kumble: A fighter to the core

Battle-hardened warrior Anil Kumble's contribution to Indian cricket goes way beyond churning out match-winning spells with spectacular consistency for the past 18 yrs.

Regarded as one of the greatest spinners of the world, battle-hardened warrior Anil Kumble's contribution to Indian cricket goes way beyond churning out match-winning spells with spectacular consistency for the past 18 years.

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The 38-year-old Kumble, the captain of the team and one of the legends in Indian cricket, today brought down the curtains on a glorious career, which had its fair share of highs and lows.

The leg-spinner ended his 132-match Test career with 619 wickets, the highest by an Indian bowler. His one-day career tally stood at an equally impressive 337 wickets from 271 matches when he ended it last year.

Kumble had been battling injuries, indifferent form and oft-repeated queries on retirement for quite some while.

The BS Chandrasekhar-idoliser kicked off his Test career in August 1990 against England, three months after his ODI debut against Sri Lanka, before going on to become perhaps the most consistent match-winning bowler that India produced in the longer version of the game.

He never was a big spinner of the ball like Shane Warne but the one aspect in which he managed to out-do the Australian legend was getting a Test hundred under his belt something Warne could never manage despite being a credible batter.

What he didn't have in natural talent, Kumble more than made up for it with sheer determination and a workmanlike approach to hone his craft.