Even Anil Kumble was not a world class bowler .. He was a good bowler but not world class like , say , Shane Warne or Muttiah Muralitharan .. Some of you might say statistics give only half the picture , but i believe that half cannot be altogether ignored .. Kumble has a bowling average of over 28 ( in tests ) .. 619 wickets in 132 matches , wickets on all surfaces etc etc but not good enough to be called world class .. Not that many wickets abroad probably apart from Australia .. Murali ( best off-spinner ) , Warne ( best leg-spinner ) , Wasim Akram ( best left-arm bowler ever ) , Glenn McGrath ( Accuracy Inc. ) are examples of world class bowlers , especially the first three .. look at their bowling averages , all below 25 .. Harbhajan Singh , outside of India is average at best and a joke at worst .. Ishant Sharma has not played enough cricket to be mentioned but i have mentioned him nevertheless because he has the talent .. As of now , Ishant is still growing as a player .. Zaheer Khan , yeah , is a good bowler , often underestimated like his predecessor Javagal Srinath .. But Zaheer and Srinath == not world class ..
Go back in time to the days of Prasanna , Bishen Singh Bedi and co. , i feel even they were not good enough to be called world class .. Now , having seen the term ‘world class’ so many times , you might ask ‘What is world class ?’ .. I’ll tell you : the bowler should have played at least 40 tests , picked up wickets at an average of 4.25 wickets or higher , bowling average of under 25 , wickets on all types of surfaces , five-wicket hauls ( innings ) and ten-wicket hauls ( match ) etc etc .. Coming to the last point ( five wicket haul ) , do you know Simon Katich , a part-time Aussie bowler has a 6 wicket haul ( innings ) in test matches .. Who among the current Indian bowlers has such figures apart from Harbhajan ?? .. Probable answer : none .. Also , Kapil Dev was the only genuine all rounder India has ever had .. Kapil Dev belonged to the quartet of cricket’s bets all rounders ever .. The quartet comprised of : Kapil Dev , Ian Botham , Imran Khan , Richard Hadlee ( not in any order ) .. So , i think it would be better not to classify Kapil Dev as a bowler only ..

People , do read the points i have made before answering .. Again , no need to leave any hateful comments ..
@Albert : You are a most deluded Indian cricket fan .. Read again , Kapil Dev == World class all rounder , not World class bowler .. Why don’t you find out his figures in bowling ?? .. Kapil Dev definitely averages over 25 in bowling .. Same again for Bishen Singh Bedi and co. .. Oh , they were good bowlers but World Class ?? .. Nah !! .. Check it up .. I am a fan too , but i am not blind to our faults

Chosen Answer:

agree .maybe cz their batsman do the most of the jobs for them