The label of India's main strike bowler wears lightly on Anil Kumble. The tall, studious looking computer expert is also an expert assassin on the cricket field. The trained assassin is one who has a gun. In Kumble's case, he fills the role having no more than a cricket ball. Give the ball to him and as he marks out his run and discusses the field with his captain, one can make out a definite sign of nerves in the batsman as he prepares to face up to India's No 1 bowler of the decade. Like any great bowler, Kumble gives the impression that a wicket is imminent every time he gets ready to bowl.

In this, Kumble is just carrying on the strike bowler's tradition in Indian cricket. In the thirties, India's two main bowlers were Md Nissar and Amar Singh. In the forties, it was Lala Amarnath and Vinoo Mankad. The left arm spinner carried on the good work in the fifties but had to share the spotlight with Subash Gupte. Then as the sixties dawned, that moody left arm spinner Salim Durrani was India's chief wicket taker. But by the mid sixties, the spin quartet who were to tease and torment batsmen the world over till the end of the seventies had taken shape. Indian cricket, basking in the glory of Bedi, Chandrasekhar, Prasanna and Venkatraghavan notched up many notable triumphs. Then, even as the aging quartet was breaking up, a burly lad from Haryana burst upon the scene. Throughout the eighties and right up to the early 90s, Kapil Dev remained India's main stock and strike bowler. For a short while in the early 80s, Dilip Doshi rivalled Kapil Dev in the wicket taking act but for almost a decade the well built medium pacer had to trundle virtually on his own.

Just as Kapil's strike rate was beginning to fall, Kumble emerged on the scene. He made his debut in England in 1990 but it was in South Africa that he first announced that he had arrived on the international scene by taking six wickets in one innings in the second Test. For a time it looked like a new spin trio had taken shape in Kumble, Venkatpathi Raju and Rajesh Chauhan as they bowled India to a unique 3-0 sweep over England in the 1993 series in this country. But even at this stage, with Kumble leading the way with 21 wickets in the three Tests, it became obvious that whether it was a duo, trio or quartet, the `smiling assassin' from Karnataka would be the leader of the pack.

As events turned out, he was not just the leader but the only one. Even as Raju, Chauhan and Hirwani faded away, Kumble went from strength to strength. His remarkable six for 12 in the Hero Cup final at Calcutta against West Indies marked him out as an exciting prospect. By 1994, Kapil had retired. Since then, Kumble had been India's bowler of the decade, with occasional help from his Karnataka speed colleague Javagal Srinath. The Indian spearhead crossed a personal landmark in the just concluded Kanpur Test by notching up his 150th wicket in his 40th Test. Notable as this feat is, making him only the second medium pacer after Kapil Dev to cross the mark, it is still Kumble to whom the cricket fans in this country look up to take wickets.

These high expectations can cause even the mighty to fall. Even the spin quartet which dominated the scene for well over a decade, could not have felt the pressure so much. For, after all, there were four bowlers. If one bowler failed, there were others to fulfil the expectations. These days, Kumble is expected to take a bagful of wickets every time he comes on to bowl. Possibly under the weight of these expectations, Kumble has has his off days. Only recently, he was dropped for a couple of one day tournaments as there was a palpable drop in his strike rate. It did seem odd that a bowler good enough to be only the second in the history of Test cricket, now 122 years and some 1500 matches old, to take all ten wickets in a Test innings, should be dropped within a few months. But perhaps in a way the omission did him a world of good. For he is now a more determined cricketer.

For long, Kumble has not received the attention that Shane Warne or even Mushtaq Ahmed has got. As orthodox leg spinners who gave the ball a healthy tweak, they garnered most of the attention. Kumble's forte was his accuracy but the minimal turn he achieved and the lack of variety in his bowling seemed to relegate him to the back bench as far as world media attention was concerned - despite what he achieved against Pakistan in the New Delhi Test in February this year. It promises to be a lot different now. For there is little doubt that he is at the peak of his powers right now. His top spinners are deadlier, his googlies turn a lot more and the occasional leg break is alarmingly deceptive.

A lot has been made about Kumble failing to be among the wickets outside India, that the vast majority of his victims have been claimed on our designer dust bowls here. No doubt there is much truth in this, as can be gauged by the fact that while he has taken 157 wickets in 28 Tests at home at an average of 21.31, abroad he has taken only 96 wickets in 27 Tests at 36.83 apiece. However with Kumble right now at the most destructive phase of his career, one can possibly predict a change for the better as far as his fortunes abroad as concerned. Perhaps the tour of Australia - where there is the prospect of an exciting one to one contest with Shane Warne - will be a pointer to the shape of things to come from a cricketer who has already taken his place as among the great Indian spinners.