I Feel That Era Was More Challenging

Former Indian cricketer Saba Karim has stated that the spin duo of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh had to bowl to far better batters of spin compared to the recent era of batters facing against Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

Therefore, he feels that Kumble and Harbhajan are better considering the standards of batting have dropped in recent times. Although both pairs have been quite effective for India over the years, it must be noted that the recent surfaces prepared are a bit more favored towards the bowlers.

“My vote will still go to the pairing of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. I feel that era was more challenging. In today’s era, I believe cricket is evolving but the standard of batting has fallen against spin.”

“That era, [Kumble and Harbhajan’s] where the spin bowlers performed well, was one where the quality of batsmanship was amazing in front of them. There were fantastic batters, who used to bat exceptionally against the spinners,” Karim was quoted as saying to India News.

“In that era, the Indian team was growing” – Saba Karim

Karim also mentioned that going up against good players of spin made Kumble and Harbhajan better and that in turn, improved the performance of the Indian team. In the past 10 years, India has also lost only once in a Test series and that was against England back in 2012.

“There were a number of foreign players who batted exceedingly well against top-quality spinners. There were many players from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies players like Brian Lara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. There were quite a few players from England as well who played the spinners well.“

“In that era, the Indian team was growing. India’s attempt was to win matches in home conditions as well as in alien conditions, especially in SENA countries and it was an era where India’s domination kept on increasing because of Kumble and Harbhajan only,” Karim further added.

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