12 overs-8 maidens—6 runs-1 wicket. This was Bishan Singh Bedi’s bowling analysis in India’s match against East Africa in the first men’s cricket World Cup in 1975. Though the Sardar and his captain S Venkataraghavan were among the most economical bowlers in that inaugural season, the wicket-taking potential of spin bowlers was not quite recognised in those relatively innocent years of limited overs cricket. The part time leg spin of Australia’s master batsman-strategist Ian Chappell was in fact more successful than the wares of most of the specialist slow bowlers in that tournament, Somachandra D’Silva, the gallant wrist spinner of Sri Lanka included.
White ball cricket, the T20 format in particular, has foregrounded spin bowling, especially wrist spin—not to mention that most recent avatar of cricketing sleight of hand that we call mystery spin—in a manner unthinkable before a certain Shane Keith Warne started to take the cricket world by storm with his back of the hand magic in the 1990s. Not only did Warne become a potent weapon in Australia’s armory in all three formats of the game, but he also inspired a whole new generation of young cricketers to take up that most difficult art. That, at least, is this writer’s understanding of the genesis of the 21st century phenomenon that has franchises vying with one another to acquire the best purveyors of slow poison that often consumes batsmen attempting to counter it with their own devilish antidotal brew of swashbuckling straight sixes, reverse sweeps, switch hits and the like.
What is it about the spells Yuzvendra Chahal weaves that places him at the very top of the wicket-gobbling tree as the first bowler to cross the double century mark in IPL history at a miserly average of 22.44? Or his incredible strike rate of 17.17 that should leave every other IPL spinner in T20 gasping for breath in awe? Not far behind him in this post-modern spin hierarchy of four-over wonders are the cherubic looking Piyush Chawla and the avuncular Amit Mishra. Their longevity in the game suggests that they have time-travelled from the era of Dr Grace when forty was a number that tended to proclaim both the age of a cricketer and the size of his waist. Yet, for all their innocuous exterior, these small wonders not only keep producing vital breakthroughs with their crafty bowling, but they are also not above dirtying their trousers or scraping their elbows with some unexpectedly acrobatic fielding.
That brings us to that wizard from Afghanistan—Rashid Khan, an ustad of his craft inarguably on a par with his late namesake from the world of Indian art music. This peripatetic practitioner of googlies, flippers, zooters, straight ones—in fact the whole bag of tricks deployed through the ages by bosiemen from Warne to Zampa—has fooled batsmen in the leagues of nations as far apart as the Caribbean and the antipodes. The trouble with his magic is that it often looks deceptively simple, until it strikes. It’s a matter of bite being infinitely worse than bark. And the great bowler that he is, he can bounce back from punishment brilliantly—with the next ball, the next over, the next match—like a cold-blooded vertebrate shedding its skin. He leads a band of fearless warriors from his ravaged country—Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, Noor Ahmad, and the rising star
AM Ghazanfar, now sadly out of IPL 2025 with an injury.
Last, but not by a mile least, the deadly trio from Chennai Super Kings: the incomparable finger-spin twins R Ashwin and R Jadeja, supported by chinaman vendor Noor Ahmad, should ask a few questions of even the batting powerhouses of this edition, notwithstanding the perceptible decline in Jadeja’s bowling form over the last few seasons. They can also be relieved by the left-arm spin of batting sensation Rachin Ravindra—who, along with his opening partner Devon Conway, must himself feel relieved that he won’t have to face Ashwin, a wily destroyer of the morale of batting southpaws through the decades.
In comparison, Mumbai Indians looks a bit short-staffed in the department of spin, despite Mitchell Santner’s migration there from Chennai. Another Chennai export, Moeen Ali, will bring superb balance to the KKR attack, already a formidable proposition with its two-pronged mystery spin attack of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, whose fairytale rise to international fame surely has few parallels in cricket history.
It is time to fasten our seatbelts and enjoy the spectacle about to unfold over the next two months. It is a constantly evolving scenario of mind-boggling batting innovations and brilliant ripostes by much battered but valiant bowling sorcerers who have brought us infinite pleasure with their ever-expanding arsenal of new weapons.
The proposed move to allow change of balls during the second innings to minimize the dew effect should provide a shot in the arm for spinners, just as the revocation of the “spit ban” should have reverse swingers and the like salivating in anticipation. The great bonus the spin merchants offer us is that most of them are more than handy with the bat, capable of winning matches for their teams even on their rare off-days with the ball. All in all, spinners from around the world are about to capture the imagination of viewers glued to their TV sets in every cricket crazy country.
Deceipt the key!
There is a vast difference between old and new. The flight, variety and confidence.
very informative