Kumble and McGain have a lot in common

Writing in the Hindu, Peter Roebuck compares 130-Test veteran Anil Kumble with 36-year-old Test hopeful Bryce McGain and surmises that the two legspinners belong to a small group of survivors.

Both took up an absurdly difficult style of bowling, a style demanding a contortion of body and wrist so tricky that hardly anyone survives exposure to it.

The game is strewn with the hopes of wrist-spinners forced into submission by their calling. They live for the beauty of the perfect leg break and are sustained by occasional instances only to be driven back towards dementia when the next ball lands yards from its intended destination.