A hero in the shorter version too

His greatest moments came in Test match cricket, but Anil Kumble the one-day performer has had plenty to savour too: 337 wickets in 271 matches is no mean achievement, while his 334 scalps in Indian colours is the highest in the all-time list.

Kumble played his first ODI on April 25, 1990, as a 20-year-old, and it didn't take long for him to justify the selectors' faith in him - in only his third game, a Texaco Trophy match against England at Headingley, Kumble sent down 11 accurate overs (it was a 55-overs-per-side game), nailed David Gower and Robin Smith conceding just 29 runs, and walked away with the Man-of-the-Match award. That didn't immediately trigger more successes, though - after 30 ODIs Kumble only had 25 wickets at an average of 44.12.

Then came the Hero Cup, in November 1993, a tournament in which Kumble truly established himself as a world-class ODI bowler - his 6 for 12 in the final won him his second Man-of-the-Match award, and his 12 wickets in the tournament came at less than 16 apiece. That kick-started a superb run over the next seven years when he was India's premier bowler, taking nearly 250 wickets at a very good average. That period included the 1996 World Cup, when Kumble led the wicket-takers' list with 15 from seven matches, outdoing the likes of Waqar Younis, Shane Warne, Curtly Ambrose and Allan Donald.

During this period, he was also one of the greatest matchwinners with the ball - his stats in victories were better than those for Younis, Muralitharan and Wasim Akram.

Since 2001, though, those numbers took a severe beating, as his shoulder injury considerably reduced his accuracy and potency. In his last 63 matches he only managed one wicket per ODI. In the same period, Harbhajan Singh played 136 games, took 152 wickets, and established himself as the leading spinner in the team.