At 37 years of age, 17 of them spent playing international cricket, Anil Kumble can surely sit back and take things a little easy. Instead, the lanky leg-spinner is planning his next move, leading the Karnataka Ranji Trophy team, currently in Mumbai, to play their opening match of the domestic season. “They’re a young side, quite talented, and we’re hoping to get off to a good start,” he said of his team.Kumble is serious about using this opportunity—the first two Ranji matches—to warm-up for the series against Pakistan. The first Test is in Delhi, where he became only the second bowler ever to take ten wickets in an innings; the second in Kolkata, where Kumble’s bowling average is among his best and the third is in Bangalore, his home ground.“It’s going to be a challenging series. Cricket, more than anything else, will be the talking factor,” he said. And former Team India captain Rahul Dravid, now ‘rested’ from the national team, is also in the Karnataka squad. He, however, refused to make any comments today, preferring to let his bat do the talking for him in the next few days. “It is nice to have him (Dravid) in the team though I still think he would’ve been better in the Indian team,” Kumble said.
