IND vs SA | Home wins need to be lauded as much as away wins, believes Anil Kumble
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Former Indian spinner Anil Kumble is of the opinion that home wins need to be celebrated as much as the away wins and should not be considered inferior. Kumble feels that victories at home are often taken for granted and expressed his happiness with the point system of the World Test Championships.
Until the turn of the year - where they emphatically beat Australia in their own backyard for the first time - India were always seen as an outstanding side at home who more often than struggled to replicate their exploits on the road. With just one loss at home in the last six years, the Virat Kohli-led side has been a force to be reckoned with at home having crushed every team that has tried to conquer their fortress.
But Anil Kumble, who famously captained India on their way to becoming the No.1 ranked Test team for the first time in their history, believes that home wins should not be degraded and must be celebrated as much as away victories, pointing to the sport of Tennis as an example for his argument.
"Whenever India plays at home, you tend to take those victories for granted, and when you lose abroad, everyone jumps up and says that those are the matches that you need to win," Kumble told News 18.
"In any other sport, take Tennis for example, nobody bothers about where you win. Yes, some people are clay court champions, some are grass champions but they’re champions. So, you don’t look at their record and say “no, no, this individual did not win do he’s not a complete champion”, nobody gets to that. They’re all great players," he added.
While Indian skipper Kohli recently came out and stated that away wins demanded twice the number of points as home wins, Kumble expressed his contentment over the current point system of the ICC World Test Championship, which awards equal points to both home and away Tests.
"So, yes, you need to give equal importance and I’m glad that since the advent of ICC’s Test Championship, nobody looks at a home victory as lesser than an away victory. So, India has started exceptionally well in the Test Championship with 3 wins out of 3," Kumble said.
While admitting the fact that a team needed away wins to be considered a complete side, Kumble also stressed on the fact that a player should always take it one Test at a time and should head into matches with the same mindset irrespective of where it's being played. He then went on to state that victories at home, by no means, should be taken for granted.
"You need to win overseas as well. If you want to be a complete team, you need to have consistent performances across formats and countries. In difficult situations, you want the team to respond. I think if you look at an overall 5-year period, and if you performed consistently well in all these counties and are winning series, then you’re looked at as a very good team. Yes, you’re judged by performances not just at home but you also how you’ve performed outside of India, especially outside the Asian sub-continent. So, yes, those performances certainly count a lot more when people assess a team’s or an individual’s performance.
"But for me, as a player, you need to look at a Test match as a Test match, irrespective of where you’re playing, you still have to win consistently those situations and those moments in a Test match. You have to identify the key moment and winning those moments will matter in a Test match. Although you have time to come back and those are little moments where India has done really well. Yes, you’ll be judged by your performances, India was certainly judged by winning in Australia. People talk about the losses in South Africa and England, so those losses will certainly rankle as India keeps consistently winning at home. So, it’s only fair that there’s a debate. But having said that, I don’t think anyone should take Test matches at home for granted," he signed off.
