Was Anil Kumble really a “tail-killer”?

The Indian team always seems to suffer from an acute problem - the problem of the wagging tail. After getting rid of the top six batsmen, someone in the lower order offering a stern resistance to ruin the best-laid plans of the Indian team is a story often repeated. The best example can be cited from the Nottingham Test of 2014 when Joe Root and number 11 James Anderson stitched a record 198-run partnership for the last wicket against India.

In such times, the Indian fans inevitably have the same thought on their minds, “wish we had Anil Kumble in the side.” India’s number one spin bowler, Anil Kumble, was regarded as the bowler who always slashed through the lower-order of the opponent with ease. The leg-spinner did not impart the whizzing spin like Shane Warne but he hurled his top-spinners and flippers like rockets which destroyed the defences of the clueless batsmen.

Anil Kumble’s bowling speed and subtle variations befuddled the opposition and the tail-enders were regular victims. The legend in his stellar Test career grabbed 619 wickets and picked up 337 wickets in ODIs, the best performance for an Indian bowler in both the formats. It was in the Test format that Kumble earned his reputation for cleaning up the tail. Let us examine whether the legacy has bases or is it just an expression.

Anil Kumble’s career figures:

The Karnataka spinner played a total of 132 Test matches for India in the span of 18 years. He collected 619 victims at a bowling average of 29.65. His best bowling figures, of course, were the miraculous numbers of 10/74 which he recorded in an inning against Pakistan at Delhi. The spectacled Engineer registered 35 five-wicket hauls while playing in whites.

If we divide the total Test wickets taken by Anil Kumble batting-order wise, here is how it tallies up.

Anil Kumble's career figures - batting-order wise

The numbers show up that almost one-third of all wickets taken by Anil Kumble included the tail-enders. Being the spinner, Kumble had fewer opportunities against top-order and made the most when he confronted the lower-order batsmen.

The most spectacular aspect of Kumble dismissing the tail was the way in which he sent them back. Of his 201 wickets, 100 were either bowled or leg before wicket. The modes of dismissal offer us an insight into Kumble’s stump-to-stump line and the impeccable bowling style of varying his pace and turn. Before the batsman could bring his bat down, the ball had already castled him or thudded into his pads.

Here is how Anil Kumble fares against his contemporary bowlers.

Comparisons with the contemporary

Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh were India's deadly spin duo

An interesting picture emerges when we compare the bowling figures of Jumbo with another great spin bowler who bowled alongside him, Harbhajan Singh. The Punjabi off-spinner dismissed 151 tail-enders out of his 417 total wickets, taking his percentage of lower-order wickets to 36%. While this number is greater than that Kumble, another layer of statistics is needed to appreciate the true worth of the leggie.

In Kumble’s 132 Test matches, Indian bowling attack dismissed 566 tail-enders in total. Kumble accounted for 201 of them; the percentage comes to 35.5%. Similarly, Harbhajan in span his career witnessed 474 tail-enders dismissed by the team, out of which he sent back 151, the percentage is 31.8%, nearly four per cent less than Anil Kumble.

Comparing with other legends

Top five bowlers in Test cricket

While Anil Kumble emerges as the clear leader when it comes to cleaning up the tail for India, the international scene throws up a different scenario. Here is how other legends line up.

The table shows that while the pace bowlers languish by a clear margin, the other spin bowlers were more lethal than Anil Kumble. Shane Warne leads the tally with his leg-spin wizardry (263 wickets) and the magician Muralitharan is not too far behind with 260 wickets of the lower-order.

However, we once again apply the same metric which we applied to Harbhajan Singh. Shane Warne is his career confronted 766 tail-enders of which he dismissed 263, thus his percentage of getting rid of the tail comes to be 34.33%, less than Kumble. Muralitharan, on the other hand, was extremely effective against the bottom order. In 565 opportunities, Murali snatched 260 wickets thus accounting for 46.01% of the tail-enders.

So in conclusion, Anil Kumble is the most devastating Indian bowler when it comes to cleaning up the tail. His high count of bowled and LBW dismissals prove the fact that Kumble did not give much of a chance to the lower order batsmen. When it comes to top-wicket takers, Kumble is eclipsed only by Muralitharan who was a freak spinner.