A career over two-decades
During a recent interview, former Indian cricketer and captain, Anil Kumble revealed his favourite Indian team captain. Kumble is still the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket on the Indian side and has enjoyed an exceptional international career in the sport.
With a career spanning over two decades and several achievements and records under his belt, Kumble has played with the best and under the best. Seeing many captains come and go during his career with the likes of Sachin and Ganguly, he was asked which one he would rate the highest.
His pick
To this, he simply replied “The magnificent Mohammad Azharuddin”. The well known legendary spinner led India in 174 ODIs and 47 Test matches. He was known for his 90 ODI wins as captain which was broken by MS Dhoni in 2014.
It was also revealed that Kumble’s wife’s favourite captain was MS Dhoni. Kumble remarked that his wife was a huge fan and always takes a picture when she meets the wicket-keeper and former captain.
Also read: Sourav Ganguly opens up on his leadership skills to help Virat Kohli
His career
After making his international debut in 1990, Kumble got an astounding 619 wickets to his name in 132 Test matches. On the list of highest wicket-taker, Kumble is third behind Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne. In the 271 ODIs that he played, he took 337 wickets.
Among Kumble’s many achievements he is also the first Indian spinner to take 300 wickets as well as the first bowler to scalp all ten wickets in a Test match. He retired in November 2008, exactly one year after becoming the Test captain in 2007.
Post his retirement he was still active in the sport. He was elected as the President of the Karnataka State Cricket Association for three years. After that, he was appointed as the head coach for the Indian team in 2016. He handed his position over to coach Ravi Shastri in June 2017 after India lost to arch-rivals, Pakistan in the last match of the Champions Trophy 2017.

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