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Veteran spinner Anil Kumble has retired from one-day cricket after India’s early World Cup exit but will continue playing Test matches, media reports said on Wednesday.

Kumble, India’s most successful bowler in both forms of the game, revealed his retirement to teammates in Port of Spain soon after India were knocked out of the tournament last week, the reports said.

The 36-year-old had already said the World Cup would be his last one-day assignment before the team departed for the Caribbean in February.

The leg-spinner had not been an automatic selection in the shorter game in recent times even though his 547 wickets in 113 Tests and 337 wickets in 271 one-dayers are the most by any Indian bowler.

Kumble, playing his fourth World Cup, got just one preliminary game against first-timers Bermuda as spin partner Harbhajan Singh was preferred for the more important matches against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

India lost both games to record their worst World Cup performance since the 1979 edition in England when they also won just one match.

Kumble is best known for taking all 10 wickets in an innings against Pakistan in New Delhi in 1999, only the second bowler to achieve the feat after Englishman Jim Laker.

Kumble will return home with the rest of the World Cup squad on Thursday (today).

India’s next international assignment is a three-week tour of Bangladesh in May comprising two Tests and three One-day Internationals (ODIs).
Source:The News