Former left-arm fast bowler Ashish Nehra played in an era where the Indian team was studded with globally-renowned cricketers. In the batting department, there were Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, the famous established trio of Indian cricket and with the ball, he had Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and others for company.

As tough a task it is for even the most ardent of cricket fans to pick the greatest batsman of the lot, Nehra is clear in his thoughts who India’s biggest match-winner is with the ball.

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With 619 Test wickets, Anil Kumble is India’s leading wicket-taker in Tests, and third overall, ahead of Glenn McGrath, Courtney Walsh and James Anderson. Kumble became only the second bowler in history, after England’s Jim Laker to take all 10 wickets in an innings, where he ran through the Pakistan batting order to finish with 10/74 at the Feroz Shah Kotla in 1999. Kumble is also the only leg-spinner to have become the captain of a team.

Recalling his early impressions of Kumble, Nehra called the former captain and leg-spinner India’s biggest match-winner with the ball, and this is when Indian cricket has seen the likes of Kapil Dev, Erapalli Prasanna, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and many more.

“First time I saw him was on television only when Anil Kumble was playing for India,” Nehra said on the Cricket Connected Show on Star Sports. “He had those huge glasses, but as you keep on playing your face, mannerisms and style keeps changing every 5-6 years. But I would definitely agree that with the ball, he was India’s biggest match-winner.”

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Brett Lee, who played a decent amount of cricket against Kumble, recalled the year when he first saw Kumble on the TV. Making his India debut as a 19-year-old against England in the year 1990, Lee felt Kumble resembled a ‘university student’, but by the time he finished playing cricket for India, had transformed into one of the biggest legends of the game.

“When he first started playing cricket, a bit like [Daniel] Vettori with the glasses on, a bit like a university student with the look with the glasses,” Lee said. “He looked a bit shy and timid but 619 wickets later, 130-odd Tests, a legend of the game but a legend of a guy.”