He said, ‘Before hanging up the phone, I told him that I am going to bowl. He thought I was joking. I don’t think he took it seriously. The former skipper said that despite suffering a broken jaw, he felt it was his responsibility to pick up some wickets for the team. He said, ‘When I went to the dressing room, I saw Sachin bowling because he was the only one in the team who could bowl. Wavell Hinds was batting at that time.
He said, ‘I thought this was my chance. I have to go and take wickets. If we can get three or four wickets from him, we can win the match. I told Andrew Leipus that I had to go. Kumble was to return to Bangalore the next day. He said at the time, ‘At least I will go home with the thought that I tried my best.’ Kumble, batting at number seven, was hit by Mervyn Dillon but continued to bat for another 20 minutes despite bleeding profusely. The match was a draw with both teams scoring more than 500 in the first innings. He named Lara, Saeed Anwar, Jacques Kallis and Arvind de Silva among the most difficult batsmen of his time.
He said, ‘It is a good thing that most of the best batsmen of that era were in my team. How difficult it would have been to bowl to Sachin, Rahul, Sourav, Viru, Laxman. By the way, Arvind de Silva was difficult to bowl and Lara had three shots for every ball.