Perhaps more than any other facet of cricket, the art of spin bowling has lent itself to innovation.
When underarm bowling was the only legal form of bowling, the brutality of pace that is commonplace today was simply not possible. Spin, or ‘twist’ became one of the bowler’s greatest weapons.
Leg spin, perhaps paradoxically, is not an innovation. Rather, it was the preeminent style of spin bowling in the underarm era, as it was more natural to bowl than what we know today as the off-break.
This is evident from the account of one John Nyren, one of cricket’s first chroniclers. He wrote of a bowler named Lamborn (a.k.a the Little Farmer), who played for Hambledon between 1777 and 1781: “He was the first I remember who introduced this deceitful and teasing style of delivering the ball [spinning from the right-hander’s off to leg stump].”
We can’t say for sure that Lamborn was the first purveyor of this craft, but one of the earliest and most well-known at the Test level is Bernard Bosanquet, widely accepted as the inventor of the googly – the right-arm wrist spinner’s variation which breaks from the right-handed batter’s off to leg stump.
Bosanquet is said to have taught the googly to Reggie Schwarz, his teammate at Middlesex, and Schwarz passed it on to Bert Vogler, Aubrey Faulkner and Gordon White after moving to South Africa.
All four of them then played in the same XI in 1906, and took 14 wickets between them as South Africa beat England for the first time ever in Test cricket.
But look around today, and forget about finding four wrist spinners in one XI, you’d be hard-pressed to find four who play consistently in Test cricket as a whole.
Count ’em – Rehan Ahmed (England), Kuldeep Yadav (India), Abrar Ahmed (Pakistan, who is really rather more a finger spinner?), and Rashid Khan (Afghanistan) and Andy McBrine (Ireland) respectively, primarily limited-overs players whose nations only received Test status after they started playing international cricket.
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Post-World War II, Test cricket has had a rather consistent thread of wrist-spinning presence at the top level. The 1950s and 60s had Richie Benaud, along with Subhash Gupte, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Bob Simpson, not to mention Johnny Wardle – who by all accounts could make a case for being both the best finger spinner and wrist spinner of his time.
The 1970s saw the rise of Intikhab Alam, Mushtaq Mohammed and Kerry O’Keeffe, before Abdul Qadir dominated the 1980s. Shane Warne and Anil Kumble led an explosion of wrist spinners in the 1990s and 2000s, with Mushtaq Ahmed, Paul Adams, Stuart MacGill and Danish Kaneria all starring at various points.
But since Kumble’s retirement in 2008, Yasir Shah is the only wrist-spinner to feature among the top ten Test spin wicket-takers in a decade.
| 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
| Richie Benaud | Lance Gibbs | Derek Underwood | Abdul Qadir | Shane Warne | Muthaiah Muralidaran | Nathan Lyon | R Ashwin |
| Jim Laker | Fred Titmus | Bishan Singh Bedi | Ravi Shastri | Anil Kumble | Shane Warne | Rangana Herath | Nathan Lyon |
| Hugh Tayfield | David Allen | Bhagwat Chadrasekhar | Iqbal Qasim | Muthiah Muralidaran | Anil Kumble | R Ashwin | Ravindra Jadeja |
| Sonny Ramadhin | Erapalli Prasanna | Lance Gibbs | John Emburey | Mushtaq Ahmed | Harbhajan Singh | Ravindra Jadeja | Jack Leach |
| Subhash Gupte | Richie Benaud | S Venkataraghavan | Bruce Yardley | Phil Tufnell | Danish Kaneria | Yasir Shah | Taijul Islam |
| Tony Lock | Ray Illingworth | Ashley Mallett | Tauseef Ahmed | Saqlain Mushtaq | Daniel Vettori | Graeme Swann | Prabath Jayasuriya |
| Alf Valentine | Bapu Nadkarni | Intikhab Alam | John Bracewell | Venkatapathy Raju | Stuart MacGill | Moeen Ali | Mehidy Hasan Miraz |
| Vinoo Mankad | Salim Durani | Erapalli Prasanna | Maninder Singh | Daniel Vettori | Ashley Giles | Shakib Al Hasan | Keshav Maharaj |
| Johnny Wardle | Bishan Singh Bedi | Mushtaq Mohammad | Phil Edmonds | Paul Adams | Monty Panesar | Saeed Ajmal | Ramesh Mendis |
| Ian Johnson | Derek Underwood | Kerry O’Keeffe | Dilip Doshi | Carl Hooper | Saqlain Mushtaq | Dilruwan Perera | Noman Ali |
The 2020s, so far, has none in the top ten. Abrar is the best-ranked at 17th, with Yasir at 19th despite playing his last Test over two years ago. Kuldeep Yadav is in 21st, and will not play for India in their last five matches of this year against Australia.
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There is, of course, time for this trend to change through the rest of the decade. By the end of it the 2020s may not stand out as one almost entirely devoid of the wrist spinner in Test cricket.
What is more interesting, is this paucity in conjunction with another phenomenon – the rise of the wrist spinner in the arena of T20 cricket. Almost parallel to their decline in Test cricket, they have become one of the most sought-after players in the shortest format.
In the 2000s, only Shahid Afridi made it to the top ten spin wicket-takers of the decade (among Full Members) in international cricket. By the end of the 2010s, five wrist spinners featured – Rashid Khan, Imran Tahir, Afridi, Samuel Badree and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Four years into this decade, that number has gone up to an astounding seven out of ten – Wanindu Hasaranga, Ish Sodhi, Adil Rashid, Adam Zampa, Tabraiz Shamsi and Rashid Khan occupy the top six spots, with Shadab Khan in eighth.
| 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
| Shahid Afridi | Rashid Khan | Wanindu Hasaranga |
| Daniel Vettori | Shakib Al Hasan | Ish Sodhi |
| Ajantha Mendis | George Dockrell | Adil Rashid |
| Abdul Razzak | Mohammad Nabi | Adam Zampa |
| Saeed Ajmal | Saeed Ajmal | Tabraiz Shamsi |
| Harbhajan Singh | Imran Tahir | Rashid Khan |
| Sanath Jayasuriya | Shahid Afridi | Mitchell Santner |
| Jeetan Patel | Samuel Badree | Shadab Khan |
| Johan Botha | R Ashwin | Shakib Al Hasan |
| Shakib Al Hasan | Yuzvendra Chahal | Sikandar Raza |
In the 2024 IPL, eight teams had a go-to wrist spinner in their starting lineup – Yuzvendra Chahal (Rajasthan Royals), Kuldeep Yadav (Delhi Capitals), Piyush Chawla (Mumbai Indians), Rahul Chahar (Punjab Kings), Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad (Gujarat Titans), Ravi Bishnoi (Lucknow Super Giants), Mayank Markande (Sunrisers Hyderabad) and Karn Sharma (Royal Challengers Bengaluru).
The other two teams – Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings – had leggies Suyash Sharma and Prashant Solanki respectively as part of their squads.
It’s not unforeseen that the rise of T20 as a format has led to shifts in the other two. But this focus has largely revolved around batters. In fact, at this point it is almost inevitable that when a team’s batting lineup is found wanting in Test cricket, short-format batting is held responsible for the deficiencies.
There is enough separation between formats for them to be treated as fundamentally different sports, and most international teams have players (batters and bowlers) who are considered specialists in one or another.
But individuals specialising in a format is one thing. Could we now be entering an era where an entire bowling type becomes format-specific?
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New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi is one of the prototypes of the modern wrist spinner. He’s played just 21 Tests, but 117 T20Is in 11 years, and is the second-highest wicket taker among Full Member spinners in T20 internationals this decade.
Speaking to Wisden.com, Sodhi illustrates how bowling in the longest and shortest formats differ: “I think there’s a huge difference, your lengths have to change. I saw a stat the other day, in T20 cricket, or in the IPL, over the last year – I can’t remember exactly the numbers off my head – but it was something like a length between five to six metres, and speeds of 95 kmph or above had the lowest strike rate for batters.
“Now, if you literally put that down on a mat, and you put it on a wicket, and you think, can I bowl that length in Test cricket? You can’t bowl that length in Test cricket. Like, batters will be on the back foot, and they’ll just be able to [get you away], especially with the quality of batters these days. It’ll be really difficult to be able to get lots of wickets.
“So the gap is big. I think they’re two very, very different sports now, T20 cricket to red-ball cricket. And probably the proof is in the pudding. There’s not a lot of spinners that play all three formats consistently all the time.”
One of the most sacred principles of Test match bowling is to put the ball in the same (correct) spot over and over again.
That level of control is far more difficult to achieve as a wrist spinner, compared to a finger spinner. Sodhi explains why this is the case: “If I’m a finger spinner and I’ve got a ball in my hand, the ball is going to follow the path that my body’s taking, completely. So, I’m going to lock my wrist in and it’s going to go forward.
“And then I think with leg spin it’s a bit challenging, because all your momentum to spin the ball has to go sideways, but the ball has to end up going in a different direction.
“I think why leg spin is a little bit harder to control, is because you’re spinning the body, you’re spinning the ball sideways, but the ball has to end up forward.”
For much of Test history, this lack of control was often worth it for teams. The trade-off was that wrist spinners still managed to strike more often than finger spinners, making them genuine wicket-taking options. But for the last 10-15 years, this has not been the case.
Finger spinners have managed to marry greater control with the wicket-taking threat of the wrist spinner, making them far more desirable in long form cricket (note how, in the following chart, how the yellow and purple lines are closer together from around 2010).
This trend means, naturally, that the wrist spinner has become less and less desirable in Test cricket.
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Between 2002 and 2007, each calendar year saw wrist spinners account for over 30 per cent of deliveries bowled by spinners. But since 2008, that number has been under 20 per cent in every single year, bar 2016.
That year saw six wrist spinners pick up 10 or more wickets – Yasir Shah (46), Adil Rashid (30), Devendra Bishoo (22), Graeme Cremer (13), Amit Mishra (11) and Ish Sodhi (11).
Sodhi believes they still have a place in the red-ball game, even if things have been on a downward trend of late. But if they are to make a comeback, so to speak, the idea of what constitutes good or ideal wrist spin bowling may have to change.
“Finger spinners can bowl sort of through the wicket, and the ball doesn’t necessarily spend as much time in the surface as it does if a leg spinner is getting up and over the ball,” he says. “I feel like sometimes leg spin can spend a little bit too much time in the surface.
“In spinning conditions, if it spins, it spins a little bit slower than what finger spinners do. You know, they can just fire it in, and they’re very accurate.
“And then you look at the most successful leg spinner in the last 20 years in Test cricket, it’s been Yasir Shah. He didn’t really bowl up and over and slow. He almost bowled fast, quick side spin. You know, if it was going to spin, it was going to spin at pace.
“I think, if you’re going to be effective over a long time in Test cricket nowadays as a leg spinner, you have to be probably like that Yasir Shah style of bowling, wicket to wicket, nice and quick, bustly.
“[Anil] Kumble was also awesome, because he used his attributes really well. He was tall, he was fast, and if there was a wicket he was going to get something out of it, but it was going to be so fast that it would be quite hard to adjust. I think that style of bowling might be more relevant to modern day test bowling if you’re a leg spinner.
He adds, “Sometimes spinners can be judged on how many five wicket bags they take, or, how many wickets they can take over a consistent period of a Test career. But then also, leg spinners have this ability, magic ability, to bowl just a random, beautiful delivery out of nowhere, they can take a wicket.
“So I think where that’s a possibility, it’s great to have that sort of X-factor. I think it’ll be great to see leg spinners playing consistent roles in red ball cricket, but I do think the way that they have to bowl has to be slightly different.”
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Sodhi’s chat with Wisden.com came a day ahead of their second Test against India, in Pune. He did not play that game, but replaced the injured Mitchell Santner for the final Test in Mumbai. The way that match panned out from his point of view made his words near-prophetic.
On a spinning wicket in the second innings of the match, New Zealand captain Tom Latham turned to each one of his finger spinners – Ajaz Patel, Glenn Phillips and even Rachin Ravindra – before giving Sodhi the ball, only in the 30th over of the innings (a caveat here is that in India in particular, wrist spin has never been especially successful).
He was the slowest of the seven spinners on show in the match, averaging 82 kmph. Amid a few drag-downs and overpitched deliveries, Sodhi went for 36 runs in seven overs.
But he did break a crucial 96-run partnership when he got a ball to stay low and spit back sharply from outside off stump to trap Rishabh Pant lbw – that one magic delivery.
In the fourth innings, with only 147 runs to play with, Latham did not go to Sodhi at all.
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What then, does this all mean for the future of wrist spin?
There’s no doubt that wrist spinners will continue to be appreciated and highly sought-after in the T20 format. Their multiple variations and lack of consistency (which is a negative in Test cricket), are desirable when batters are constantly going after them.
If Sodhi’s hypothesis about wrist spinners needing to bowl quicker in Test cricket is taken as accurate, it would mirror the evolution of the art in T20 cricket, where spinners are bowling quicker and flatter.
In a more result-oriented era of the red-ball game, there are more match situations now which could demand quick runs from the batting side. With T20-style batting having a place in Test cricket, the natural counter would be for T20-style bowling, i.e. the wrist spinner, to also have a place. One wonders whether this could be the route towards a somewhat perverse resurgence of the wrist spinner in Test cricket.
But even if this were the case, the wrist spinner would more or less be a bowler with a highly specific role – to bowl in the periods where batters are being more aggressive. It’s not very high-usage.
A complementary development, then, could be that a few years down the line, the practice of wrist spin becomes almost exclusively the domain of the all-rounder – good enough as a bowler to fill a specific role, but not enough to be picked as a specialist. Think of someone like Rehan Ahmed at present (he is still only 20 years old).
This is one potential development, and the other is also interesting to think about. If wrist spin remains the domain of the specialist, they will have to set themselves apart from the crowd. Could that be by going back an earlier era of spin bowling, where bowlers ran up like pacers, only to give the ball a twist with the wrist or fingers at delivery – like Bhagwat Chandrasekhar?
It’s possible that classical wrist spin as we know it, and associate it with Shane Warne – tossing the ball up, letting it drift and beating the batter even before it has pitched – is on the way out, even from the Test arena.
If wrist spin is to continue as a red-ball art, it has to evolve away from the mystical image cultivated around the most difficult skill in the game, and jump on the helter-skelter future the format is rapidly hurtling towards.
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