In a career spanning 15 years and after scoring 28,016 runs in international cricket across all formats Sangakkara has had his share of sleepless nights because of Legendary Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble.
In a video posted by ICC to celebrate Hall of Famer Anil Kumble, Sangakkara described his experience while playing against the legendary leg-spinner.
“Kumble has given me a few sleepless nights as a batsman. He was not your orthodox leg-spinner. This big, tall gangly bowler running in and bowling with very high arm action. Bowling fast, bowling straight and accurately. It was not at all easy to get him away for runs.”
“If you were a batsman facing Anil Kumble, you knew that he had a plan for you."
One of India’s finest on #ICCHallOfFame 📽️ pic.twitter.com/55Et7OWpdV
— ICC (@ICC) May 20, 2021
“A lot of bounce… he had great pace on the ball and if there was any rough on a length, the batsman had very little chance of getting away”.
“Lovely guy, very intense cricketer but an absolute champion for India and world cricket,” Sangakkara said in a video shared by the ICC.
Kumble, with 619 Test wickets (in 132 Tests) is the third-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket after Muttiah Muralidaran (800) and Shane Warne (708). 337 wickets in ODIs make an impressive tally of 956 wickets.
Kumble’s best bowling in an innings came against Pakistan in Delhi, 1999, where he took a perfect 10 wicket haul. He was the first Indian to do so.
Legendary Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh shared this post by ICC on his Twitter account saying, “Biggest match-winner India has ever produced.” #legend @anilkumble1074.
