The Smiling Assassin

All this, and Pakistan too. An opponent against whom he has achieved the ultimate a bowler can dream of.

At home, Kumble8217;s extraordinary feats have resulted in 23 Test wins with him claiming 35 per cent of the wickets claimed. The statistics 8212; 20 five-wicket hauls, five 10-fors 8212; are merely the fine print of his achievements.

Kumble doesn8217;t restrict his never-say-die attitude to bowling alone. He once said that if he had to walk out to bat at number 10 with his side requiring 60 runs in five overs to win the game and his team knew he couldn8217;t do it, the world knew he couldn8217;t do it, he would never tell himself that.

8216;8216;I have to think, walking in, that I do have a chance. I have to go out there and give it my best shot, I need to know at the end of it all that I tried.8217;8217;

In a free-wheeling interview with K SHRINIWAS RAO, Kumble talks about his journey, his trials, his future in one-day cricket and of course the forthcoming Pakistan series.

Everyone wrote you off last year yet you bounced back once again. How much of it has been the mind and how much of it has been the body?
It8217;s all in the mind. Yes, there was a time when I felt I was wearing out, when my body had started to give way. But I was always thinking of returning; that confidence was always there. In a way the whole process the injury period taught me a lot of things.

Like what?
For starters, I came to know who my friends were. Who cared and who didn8217;t. It gave me a lot of time to reflect on my career. Age was also catching up and there had been a lean phase; add to that the injury and things weren8217;t going well. But yes, the whole process while recovering from the injury made me a much stronger human being. I should also thank my wife for her support. It was great and she was there for me when I needed her. The experience of undergoing the whole thing and coming out of it gave me a lot to learn.

India are playing a big series at home again. Going by past records, the focus will once again be on you. How do you see the series unfolding?
I am one of the eleven individuals who will walk out on the field and perform as a team. Every one among those eleven will have to put their hands up and give his best and the same goes for me. Maybe the experience of having played Pakistan at home will matter, but not much. They are a mix of the young and the old and so are we.

Does the famous 10-wicket haul matter at all when you walk out to play Pakistan? Do you take confidence from it or do you believe it is history?
It8217;s history. That was one wonderful day for me in cricket; perhaps the highest point of my career. But that is the past. Not even for a moment will that bowling performance matter when I prepare to take on Pakistan again. Every day is a new beginning. Only if I keep performing in the present, will the past hold me in good stead. Yes, the confidence will be there. But more than the 10-wicket haul it will stand for the reason that we8217;ve always performed well at home but nothing in particular will play on my mind.

Unlike typical sub-continent teams, Pakistan haven8217;t been the best players of spin in recent times. Do you see a chink there in the Pak armour?
What should bother us is our performance. They have always been the ones to spring a surprise or two. As far as playing spin goes, maybe the youngsters Pakistan are still to get the hang of it but they are definitely capable of a fight. I don8217;t feel they played that badly even in Australia; in fact, the one-dayers went off pretty well for them.

Apart from Yousuf Youhana and Inzamam Ul Haq, and possibly Afridi, the Pakistanis haven8217;t played here too much. Who will be the other threats?
Inzamam and Youhana are the strong points in the Pakistan team and were the main threats when we toured Pakistan last year. But the others shouldn8217;t be ignored either. I don8217;t think they are immature; they8217;ve put up gritty displays in recent times. In the Test we lost in Pakistan, Inzamam and Youhana made most of the difference and now they are the ones who have good experience of playing in India.

Harbhajan has been another great performer at home. How does it feel swapping places with him in overseas Tests 8212; when you take the lone slot 8212; and one-dayers, when he does? Do you still see a future in one-dayers for yourself, considering your fielding is not the best aspect of your game?
It8217;s a simple case of what the team requires on that particular match day. Harbhajan is more confident now after the recent decision on his bowling arm and getting better with every outing. My future is not a worry as long as I am enjoying the game. I8217;ve never given that opting out of either one-dayers or Test a thought until now and neither is it playing on my mind. Right now the focus is to keep performing. There are good times and then there are bad times.

What is our strength against the Pakistanis?Our batting or the bowling attack
There has to be a balance in everything; like the batting where you have to have a good balance of aggression and composure, the bowling needs pace and spin. Similarly, it will be a question of how well the bowling goes in line with how we bat. It is a simple case of both going hand in hand.

How realistic is the 500-wickets target? How do you plan to go about it?
Well, I do have that figure in mind, quite realistically. The 500-wicket mark is definitely achievable and there is no reason why I should not go for it. It is about playing good cricket and bowling at a consistently level.

We play our Test matches on two of your favourite hunting grounds Kolkata and Bangalore. How do you rate your chances?
All the three Test centres including Mohali are good. Last time, it was a good outing at Mohali. But the venue shouldn8217;t matter, keeping in mind that we have a balanced team. We should be able to do well in any given condition. You don8217;t need to bowl differently on a given pitch from what you do in any part of the world.

8216;Anilbhai ko wicket lene ki bhook hai8217;

HARBHAJAN SINGH pays tribute to his spin twin and partner in crime

Anilbhai has always been very helpful to me. He8217;s known me ever since I was in the 10th standard. Seeing me bowl he always said that I was the guy who would play for India one day. He8217;s been advising me ever since.

His intensity has been a major influence on my career. Bowling with him over the last 4-5 years has taught me how to cope with the pressure when wickets don8217;t come easy. Initially he took all the pressure on himself but now I8217;m established the expectations from me have gone up 8212; and, with it, the pressure.

I8217;ve always enjoyed the pressure he builds for me. There are days when you bowl well and yet not get wickets and there are other days when you get wickets regardless.

Take the Bangalore Test against Australia. He took three wickets and built great pressure for me to pick up five wickets after that. Then again I picked six wickets but credit for part of that performance must go to him.

Even though there have been times when he has been out of the team because of me and vice versa, our relationship has not changed. Even when he isn8217;t playing in the eleven he is as involved and ready to offer advice.

But I feel for him when I see a bowler of his calibre having to sit out the one-dayers. It adds to the pressure on me because I have to raise the level of my performance to justify my selection.

If only I could take his fighting ability and his ability to comeback after being hit by a batsman, I would be a much better bowler. He is the steadiest bowler I have ever seen. He understands international cricket more than most of us.

Anilbhai ko wicket lene ki bhook hai. Even today after 400 plus wickets he bowls like he is 20 years old and looks as keen as someone playing for the country for the first time.

As told to Faisal Shariff