Gautam Gambhir, a former cricketer for India, is renowned for making direct comments that frequently offend supporters. Gambhir, who was renowned for his ‘in your face’ style while he was playing, has the same demeanor off the field as well and doesn’t hold back when it comes to stating his mind. Recently, the two-time World Cup champion turned eyebrows when he selected the greatest skipper in Indian cricket history. Anil Kumble was chosen by Gambhir as India’s best-ever captain during an interview, beating out MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, and Kapil Dev. The former opener has previously expressed his admiration for Kumble’s captaincy.
The Delhi-born cricketer was challenged during a rapid-fire round on Vivek Bindra’s YouTube channel’s Bada Bharat Show. Gambhir was given the challenging duty of selecting from among the greatest Indian team captains, including Kohli, Dhoni, Ganguly, and Kapil Dev. To everyone’s amazement, he chose renowned wrist spinner Anil Kumble instead of any of them.
It should be noted that Kumble took over as India’s Test captain in 2007 and led the side in 14 games in the longest format. The Bangalore-born cricketer, however, didn’t have a particularly noteworthy tenure as skipper as the side won just three of its 14 games, lost five, and tied six more.
Anil Kumble has taken the fourth-most wickets in international cricket.
During the notorious Australian tour of 2007–2008, when Australia was widely criticized for not playing by the rules during the contentious Sydney Test, the iconic cricketer served as India’s captain. Kumble concluded his career with 619 wickets from 132 matches at an average of 29.65, making him the third-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket history.
James Anderson, an England seamer who is now ranked third, outperformed him in terms of total runs in 2021. With 956 kills from 403 games, Kumble is fourth on the history of most wickets in international cricket.