Ganguly may be on borrowed time

Amid the confusion over Ganguly's position - before he withdrew with a thigh strain, the Madras one-dayer was supposed to be his third in a three-match captaincy trial - has come a note of sanity.

Calm, decisive, but most important of all smiling, Kumble cut a mature and comfortable figure as the captain of India.

Even when Javagal Srinath was bowling a nine-ball opening over, he remained unflustered at mid-off, giving his bowler a clear message that he expected him to recover his poise.

But the most impressive part of his captaincy came in his handling of Harbhajan Singh, who was brought on to bowl before his illustrious captain and given a slip and a ring of fielders saving one.

With actions rather than words, Kumble had shown Harbhajan just how much he rated him. It was expected - not hoped - that he would take wickets.

Sound tactics

Encouraged to attack, the off-spinner bowled Paul Collingwood a drifter which the batsman duly edged to slip. Kumble was one of the first to celebrate.

"I couldn't have been more impressed. He was exactly as I would have been as captain - attacking," former Indian wicket-keeper Farokh Engineer told BBC Sport Online.

Kumble removes England's Michael Vaughan

"Thinking about it, I can't believe he wasn't made captain earlier, when Sachin Tendulkar stepped down.

"I don't have anything against Sourav Ganguly, he is a young man under enormous pressure, but Kumble was so impressive.

"His body language was good, he showed that he believed in his bowlers, and his field placing was perfect.

"Such a shy, modest man, a real student of the game, you know. He doesn't really know how good he is."

But could such a character make a long-term success of the Indian captaincy?

"The pressures are enormous. Cricket in India is as big as football in South America," Engineer said.

Calm under pressure

"The politics involved are almost unbelievable. There are even reports that Ganguly does not have an injury at all. Unless you are there, you cannot have any idea as to what is going on.

"But I do think that Kumble would be the perfect candidate to take over. Whether the selectors have the guts to do it, however, is another matter. I genuinely don't know."

If the selectors were worried about how Kumble would handle his men in front of 50,000 delirious fans, those fears would have been partially allayed in Madras.

Above all, he showed a sensitivity to his players unseen in Ganguly's haughty style of captaincy.

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When Sanjay Bangar disappeared for two fours in an over, he immediately shielded the young bowler, who was making his one-day international return, by bringing himself on from his end.

And where Ganguly reacted to England losing wickets in Cuttack by blocking off the boundaries, unintentionally allowing Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood time to build a match-winning partnership, Kumble responded to a similar position by doubling the pressure.

At one point, Harbhajan was bowling to two slips and a short leg.

Finally, it will not have gone unnoticed that Kumble was not shy to put himself in the firing line. With six overs to go and England looking for quick runs, he brought himself back into the attack.

And with Tendulkar unwilling to lead the side again, the only other senior players to consider are Rahul Dravid, when he returns from injury, and Javagal Srinath.

Kumble has now become the favourite, however, and he deserves all the praise that will come his way.

Whether he deserves the trials and tribulations that come with the Indian captaincy is another matter.