Anil Kumble or Brett Lee -- Sanjay Manjrekar Recalls Indian Bowling Bouncers

Anil Kumble is often hailed as one the best bowlers in the world, and rightly so. The spinner finished just short of 1000 wickets in a career spanning 18 years. He had an ability to bowl fast as a spinner, that always helped him outfox the batsman.

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In an interaction on Star Sports show Cricket Connected, Sanjay Manjrekar revealed that he even used to bowl bouncers in first-class cricket.

“He was already being talked about by everyone that there is this tall leg-spinner but he is not quite like a leg-spinner. And I remember there were some first-class performances where people were talking about him bowling bouncers on some of those domestic pitches,” said Manjrekar on the show.

Manjrekar was also at the receiving end in domestic competitions as both of them represented different teams. He went on to say that sometimes batsmen used to fend deliveries, like they would to Brett Lee.

“People were fending the ball as they would against Brett Lee. So, his reputation preceded him,” added Manjrekar while remembering Kumble’s bowling performances.

Earlier, Kumble had talked about his comparison with Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan. "It feels really wonderful to finish with these many wickets. I never bothered about statistics or what my average should be, I wanted to bowl the whole day and be the one to take wickets.

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"To finish as the third-highest wicket-taker in Tests alongside Murali and Warne is very special. All three of us played in the same era, there were a lot of comparisons, I do not know why people compared me with Warne. Warne was someone really different and he was on a different plane," Kumble told Pommie Mbangwa during the interaction.