Gautam Gambhir hails Anil Kumble for 'inspiring generation of players'

Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir hailed India's spin-king Anil Kumble as the 'greatest leader' he has ever played under, as he took to wish the former cricketer on his birthday. Calling him as an inspiration for generations of cricketers in India, Gautam Gambhir conveyed his birthday wishes to Anil Kumble and revealed that he had learnt a lot from the spinner. One of India's best spinners, Anil Kumble has 619 Test wickets and 337 ODI wickets in his 17-year long international career and has been etched in minds of the Indian fans for being a magician in the longer format of the game for India. Other cricketers who wished former spinner Anil Kumble include former Test player VVS Laxman, Indian speedster Mohammad Shami, spinner Pragyan Ojha, batsman Robin Uthappa and others, as they took to Twitter to convey their wishes to the former Indian spinner.

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Gautam Gambhir hails Anil Kumble as 'greatest leader'

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Anil Kumble is back as the coach

The 48-year-old is back to coaching again, this time as director of cricket operations at Kings XI Punjab. He also held mentorship roles at Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians."With RCB we did not win the title but we came close a couple of times. With Mumbai, we had wonderful success in those three years I was there. It is nice to have the experience of crossing the line. It certainly helps (you as a coach)," Kumble told PTI on Wednesday. "It is all about a game of cricket at the end of it. If you simplify like that the job becomes a lot easier. The moment you start putting importance to result in wins, trophies then it puts more pressure on the players. So the learning is just to back off and help the players relax and when they are relaxed they tend to perform better." At an event here on Wednesday, EbixCash was announced as Kings XI Punjab's title sponsor for three years. Kings XI Punjab has never won the IPL and Kumble has come on board to end the title drought. Kumble, who wants to add more experience to the Punjab squad, will soon start strategizing for the IPL auction in December. "You learn from the previous experiences you have had as a player, as a coach but IPL is a rollercoaster ride. You need to be patient and then back the players you have."Generally, because of certain results, you tend to start looking at other teams and that starts influencing your decision and that is the last thing you want."

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