There are some uncanny similarities between Anil Kumble, the India Test captain, and Anil Kumble, Bangalore’s IPL captain. He wasn’t favourite when he took over the reins of the Test team after Rahul Dravid stepped down. Then, the selectors decided Mahendra Singh Dhoni was too raw, while no one else seemed keen on the job.

In the IPL, it was widely reported that Jacques Kallis would take over from Kevin Pietersen once the England basher left the squad to join the national team. Once again, it was a late call to give Kumble the skipper’s cap, as Kallis’s slow start in the tournament meant he wasn’t a certainty in the playing XI.

However, the one thing his two stints had in common was that they were unexpected success stories, both with heart-breaking endings. Kumble led the Test side to a successful tour of Australia and grew comfortably into the role of senior statesman. Then, midway through the final day of a Test match in Delhi against Australia, he decided he didn’t have the will to fight on.

For a long time on Sunday night, it seemed like he would end this T20 stint as skipper by lifting the IPL trophy — but a late crumble saw his team fall short by six agonising runs.

“It would have been nice if we would have won today. When captaincy came after Kevin had to go back, that was a challenge for me and it really helped my game. Twenty20 is different because it is really fast paced. In that sense I thought I did pretty well,” said Kumble, under whom the team won seven out of 10 games. “Personally, it was very good, but from the team’s perspective it was brilliant.”

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