No bowler in history has won India more Test matches than Anil Kumble, and there probably hasn't been a harder trier either. Like the great tall wristspinners Bill O'Reilly and his own idol BS Chandrasekhar, Kumble trades the legspinner's proverbial yo-yo for a spear, as the ball hacks through the air rather than hanging in it and comes off the pitch with a kick rather than a kink. It is a method that has provided him stunning success, particularly on Indian soil, where his deliveries burst like packets of water upon the feeblest hint of a crack, and more than one modern-day batsman has remarked that there is no more difficult challenge in cricket than handling Kumble on a wearing surface.

Kumble's prodigious capacity to bear pain was proved in Antigua in 2002 when he bandaged his fractured jaw to deliver a stirring spell, and that to continuously learn when, in the mid-2000s, after a decade of middling away performances, he influenced memorable wins in Headingley, Adelaide, Multan and Kingston, using an improved googly, bigger sidespin and more variation in flight and on the crease.

In a brilliant though always downplayed career Kumble has claimed virtually every Indian record. In 1999 in Delhi he swallowed all ten wickets in an innings against Pakistan. In December 2001, on home turf in Bangalore, he became the India's first spinner to take 300 Test wickets. A year later, almost to the day, he became the first to do so in one-dayers. In August 2007 at The Oval he went past Glenn McGrath's 563 wickets and in January 2008 he broke the 600 barrier, to stand behind only Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, emphasising his contribution to spin's golden era. And at The Oval he chalked up what, judging by the pure ecstasy of his reaction and the dressing room's, was perhaps his most cherished feat of all - a Test century that had been 17 years and 118 matches in the coming.

Less than a month after his 37th birthday, though, he received the ultimate honour when he was named India's Test captain for the home series against Pakistan. He went on to win the series, the first home triumph against Pakistan in 27 years, before playing a big role in holding the side together during the controversial series in Australia. He was also India's leading wicket-taker with 20 in the four Tests.

Rahul Bhattacharya (October 1, 2008)

Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1996

• Spin twins redundant? (Oct 10, 2008)
  
• Rub of the green for Hussey (Oct 10, 2008)
  
• Australia bank on Bangalore factor (Oct 8, 2008)
  
• Elegy for the long player (Oct 3, 2008)
  
• 'Forced' retirement talk only in the media - Kumble (Oct 2, 2008)
  

View the full list of 423 related articles

Oct 10, 2008 Anil Kumble in his delivery stride © Getty Images

Oct 9, 2008 Zaheer Khan and his team-mates are delighted after Matthew Hayden's dismissal © Getty Images

Oct 9, 2008 Ravi Shastri, Ricky Ponting and Chris Broad watch Anil Kumble toss the coin © Getty Images

View the full list of 497 related images