Anil Kumble

[Vilander]

Why couldn't he have walked to Australian team?

:cantstop:

[Vilander]

^just the small matter of shane f'n warne.

[I6MTW]

:cantstop:

Besides Lee, Warne, and Gillespie(maybe). The rest of the aussie bowlers were mediocre. Kumble would've easily walked as a 4th bowler.

[Crookbond]

Why couldn't he have walked to Australian team?

Australians had no south Indian policy in their dressing rooms.

[Vilander]

Besides Lee, Warne, and Gillespie(maybe). The rest of the aussie bowlers were mediocre. Kumble would've easily walked as a 4th bowler.

ofcourse if we count Magrath as a batman and warne as an off spinner who bowls wrong ones all the time.

[I6MTW]

ofcourse if we count Magrath as a batman and warne as an off spinner who bowls wrong ones all the time.

Including Magrath then Kumble could've been the 5th bowler. Gillespie and warne were capable batsmen and pinch hitters. Australia had a strong top 6.

[Trichromatic]

Besides Lee, Warne, and Gillespie(maybe). The rest of the aussie bowlers were mediocre. Kumble would've easily walked as a 4th bowler.

Add Stuart Mcgill to the list.

[velu]

kumble is a good bowler.. but definitely not belongs to the class of warne , murali , etc

[I6MTW]

Add Stuart Mcgill to the list.

he was not a regular.

[Trichromatic]

he was not a regular.

He was available most of the time.

[Marut]

Why couldn't he have walked to Australian team?

Difficult to displace Warne. Aussies don't play too many spinners together. MacGill and Warne together played only 16 matches. A bowler of the stature of MacGill could play just 44 tests for Australia and most of the time he played when Warne did not play.

[RedFever]

Difficult to displace Warne. Aussies don't play too many spinners together. MacGill and Warne together played only 16 matches. A bowler of the stature of MacGill could play just 44 tests for Australia and most of the time he played when Warne did not play.

MacGill and Warne were too similar.. If any team had Shane warne and Anil Kumble in their squad, both would have played in tandem. I would rate Shane Warne, Kumble, Murli.

[Clarke]

ATG without question. If he had DRS in his time, he'd probably a hundred more wickets and an avg closer to 25. You could argue the same about other bowlers not having DRS as well but its the likes of Jumbo that suffered the most since he relied on pinpoint accuracy instead of spin & flight.

[Muloghonto]

Where does Kumble stand in world cricket? Can he be put into the world class category? Or was he is just a great player for Indian team. My opinion is the latter, he was a good player but hardly a top quality or world class bowler. His stats also do not support him with bowling average of 30s. What about your opinion? Just like Inzi who got the 4th highest runs, yet I wouldn't put him at the top category at all.

There are only four spinners since WWII who have clearly better average than Kumble: Warne, Muralitharan, Underwood and Laker. Of the four, three had superb pace attacks ( England in Underwood's era were excellent bowlers at home and in Aus/NZ) to soften up the top order before the great spinners came around. Every other spinner averages in the 27-31 category. Kumble is one of them. So I dont see whats the problem with his 'average'. Kumble through his career, like Murali, bowled on more greentops overseas than any of the great spinners- that is because India and Sri Lanka had weak pace attacks during their careers and teams were better off making seaming paradises when India or Sri Lanka visited- their pacers wouldnt do as well as the home team's and it also neutralizes/puts a dampner on the best bowlers from India/Sri Lanka (spinners). As such, i dont see what the problem with Kumble's numbers are. If Kumble routinely came on to bowl with the score 50/3 instead of 80/1, his numbers would've been a whole lot better. Kumble is quite easily an ATG bowler. Amongst the spinners, he is right up there with any spinner in history of the game barring Warne-Murali, who are slightly better, especially Murali. Kumble was also easily the hardest bowler to face on pitches that suited him. A dry,dusty and crumbling pitch for Kumble would equal he'd run through a lineup featuring the likes of Gavaskar,Tendulkar,Zaheer Abbas callibre players, no problem. He was more deadly on his type of pitches than Murali was on any pitch or Warne for that matter.

[Muloghonto]

Murali' date=' Laker, Warne (just above 25), Verity (somewhere round 25), O'Riely, Grimmet[/quote'] Dont even begin with Verity,Grimmett, O'Reiley,Laker or Underwood. These guys bowled in an era when pitches were not covered. You have any idea how much more the pitch deteriorates when it is not covered and rolled before every two days like we do it now ? Those guys were good spinners but not in the class of spinners who played in the covered pitches era. They were also not as good as Gupte or Gibbs, who all played with very little pace bowling support. To have great numbers as a spinner, you must be a spinning freak like Murali, who can turn the ball a mile with exemplary control all day, or you must have a potent pace attack who routinely blow holes in the top order before you come on. Your chances of averaging low as a spinner are much greater when your pace battery reduces the opposition regularly to 50/3 when you come in, as opposed to 80/1. So far, Murali is the only spinner in history to operate as a 'lone great' in the team and average below 25. Every other spinner who's done so, has done so on the back of having a great pace bowling attack.

[The Outsider]

Inzamam got the 4th highest runs? He is not even in the top 10.

[Muloghonto]

As for Kumble walking into Aussie team or not- its a no contest, Kumble would easily have walked into the Aussie team. Sure, he wouldn't be a total permanent fixture in every match due to the presence of Warne, but even in Australia, Kumble would be a shoo-in whenever the matches were held at the MCG, Sydney,Adelaide & Perth. The only pitches where the Aussies would've rested Kumble would've been Brisbane and Hobart. Even in England, he gets to play in Edgebagston, Turnbridge wells, etc. He would quite easily have walked into the Aussie team of early 2000s and mid 90s- once Fleming and Reiffel retired, the Aussie 'third paceman' wasnt very good- the likes of Lee, Bracken, etc. would've been easily replaced by Kumble and if AK was an Aussie, he'd probably have played just over a 100 tests, not quite the 130+ he did for India.

[Asim]

0UAKqeL_dYg

[Clarke]

^ Yeah that really adds to the discussion. Thanks for the genius contribution. /* Waits for another paki to post Saeed Anwar video */

[Asim]

^ you welcome sir, anytime :) Thanks for appreciation... /* and I'll wait for Kumble all 10... */