RP Singh Hails Anil Kumble As The Best Captain Of His Life

Former Indian bowler RP Singh may have played just 14 Tests, 58 ODIs and 10 T20Is for the national side, but during his short career, the southpaw played a huge part in India scripting some of its most memorable victories.

RP Singh, during his six-year-old career played under a variety of captains. He started his career under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly and then went on to play under Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and the finally MS Dhoni.

In a recent conversation with opener-turned-commentator Akash Chopra, RP Singh talked in detail about his experience of playing under the names mentioned above, besides hailing champion leg-spinner Anil Kumble as the best captain of his life.

“Anil Kumble was himself a bowler and so he was the best captain of my life. I played only few matches under him but the he knew the psyche of the bowler. I said ‘I will bowl in-swing then he would say no continue bowling out-swing and postpone your thoughts’. Rahul Dravid would not do that. He was a bowler and he knew better about frustrating a bowler,” RP Singh said.

RP then went on to talk about his very first captain Sourav Ganguly, who he hailed as someone who would support his bowler despite them going for wides or no-balls, as was the case with the T20 World Cup-winner during his debut series.

“Every captain has his own way. Sourav Ganguly gave me the ball and just told me to go and ball. First ball wide, second ball wide but he said it happens with everyone. So he was captain who would support and say ‘ no worries I will make us win’,” RP Singh recalled.

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Rahul Dravid- a ‘technical master’; MS Dhoni- best reader of the game- RP Singh

The Uttar Pradesh bowler heaped high praise on Rahul Dravid, hailing him as a ‘technical master’. RP was one of the spearheads behind India’s historic Test series win in England in 2007, and the left-arm swing bowler revealed how Dravid gave him full support and set the fields according to the line and angle that he wanted to bowl at the English batsmen.

“Rahul Dravid was technically a very smart player, he would read the game and decided what to do. In the England series I asked to bowl from round the wicket but he should bowl a bit from over the wicket. I looked up to him after few overs and asked again and then he asked if the ball is swinging and even asked MS Dhoni. He allowed me to bowl round the wicket after that. Setting up the field in different ways, he was a technical master, he knew how to run the game,” RP Singh said.

Lastly, RP Singh hailed his friend MS Dhoni for his astuteness in reading the game and reckoned that he hasn’t seen anyone who can read a particular match-situation better than Dhoni.

“We haven’t seen anyone reading the the game better than MS Dhoni. When to drag a situation, change it, leave it or how to carry on game from a situation, I haven’t seen anyone better than him in my playing career. He was a player who would read the situation differently,” RP Singh stated.

RP Singh, who last played for India in 2011, retired from International cricket back in 2018.

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