Sangakkara is someone very special, he has taken batting to next level: Kumble

As Sri Lanka's highest run-getter in Tests, Kumar Sangakkara plays one final time for his country in the longer format from Thursday, tributes have not stopped pouring in to celebrate his glorious career, says a report in The DNA, adding that it is at the P Sara Oval in Colombo where he will play his 134th and last Test, a venue in which he averages 50.29 and has scored 855 runs in 11 Tests and 18 visits to the crease.

Among those to pay rich accolades to the retiring Sri Lankan is former India captain Anil Kumble. In the six Tests that Kumble has played against Sangakkara, the former Indian leg-spinner has dismissed him on three occasions.
When asked about the challenges he faced while bowling to Sangakkara, Kumble told dna: “Bowling against Sri Lanka as a spinner was perhaps the toughest challenge that I faced. Be it (Arjuna) Ranatunga, Aravinda (de Silva), (Sanath) Jayasuriya, (Roshan) Mahanama in the earlier era and followed by Sangakkara and Mahela (Jayawardene) later on. It was always a challenge.”

Kumble added: “Sanga is someone very special. Over the last few years, he has taken batting to the next level. I don't think he has anyone behind him in terms of international cricket, the way he has been batting. Over the last two years, he has scored runs all over the world. For a wicketkeeper to do that, it is never easy. That goes to show his fitness levels, his concentration levels and also his passion for the game.

Meanwhile a report in The New Indian Express says, more than his statistical feats and the trophies he has won, it’s his sensibilities that will leave cricket poorer. “The sensibilities of a human being bound to his society, country and the sport he loves. His career has collided with some of the worst tragedies, both nature-inflicted and man-induced, his country has endured. He himself has first-hand experience of being shot at. But that he still has the perspective to put things in place differentiates him from other run machines of his time,” says the report.

Like when he was asked of the Lahore stadium shooting of 2009, he replied without any tinge of rancor in his sound or words. “I don’t know whether I will term it as the lowest point. It was one of the scariest points for sure. But it kind of again put things in perspective. We have been through a raging conflict, we were untouched directly by the war. And then we go to play cricket, which should be the safest environment for us, we got attacked. We had injuries and when I saw Thilan Samaraweera come back a month and a half later and score a Test hundred, after being shot in the leg and running the risk of not being able to play again, maybe even die. That really brought home to us that being in a situation like that it is scary but the real point is to come out of it and come out of it strong. That brought us close to a larger part of the Sri Lankan public who had experienced that day in and day out,” he said.