In Test matches (cricket’s longest format), three of the most successful bowlers are spinners. Remarkably, the two bowlers (Shane Warne and Anil Kumble) from the above elite club (Sri Lanka’s off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has the highest of 800 wickets) are leg-spinners. Traditionally, leg-spin has always been regarded as one of the most difficult arts to master and at the same time most rewarding. Test cricket and T20 formats are so different in many ways that sometimes it may appear that both are altogether separate sports. However, one thing is common in both formats of the game and that is the dominance of leg-spinners as a match-winner.
If you analyze the most accomplished bowlers in the last 12 seasons of the Indian Premier League, three out of the top five are spinners. And, unsurprisingly again, two spinners in this list are leg spinners Amit Mishra (Delhi Capitals) and Piyush Chawla (Chennai Super Kings). Unlike Lasith Malinga, Harbhajan Singh, and Dwayne Bravo (who feature among top 5 bowlers of all-time in IPL) Mishra and Chawla haven’t been hugely successful in international cricket. Yet, when it comes to IPL, no franchise can ignore their pedigree.
So, what is the reason that leggies have such a significant say in this format? “Because they work harder! They have to bowl at least two-three hours in the nets to get their variations right. Since they possess more variations in comparison to finger spinners, I think chances of getting wickets are more for wrist-spinners,” says the 37-year-old Mishra to this writer. “T20 is an attacking game and everyone is looking to score runs quickly. So leg-spin is a kind of art where you are bound to pick up wickets because there are so many variations,” says Chawla who will be playing under Dhoni for the first time in this season.
Former Indian captain Gautam Gambhir won two IPL trophies for KKR and Chawla played an influential role in that success story. “If you want to stop batsmen from scoring runs, the most important thing is to pick up wickets and leg-spin is the most attacking bowling variation. If you see overall everyone is going for runs. Everyone goes for runs in this format but it depends who picks up wickets,” adds Chawla who was bought by CSK for Rs 6.75 crore after they beat Kings XI Punjab in a fierce bidding war.
Chennai Super Kings spent almost half their salary cap on the 31-year-old by Chawla who is now expected to be handy on the slow tracks of UAE. Chawla’s base price in the auction was Rs 1 crore and it speaks volumes about the importance of having a proven leg-spinner in the team.
Besides, Mishra and Chawla another Indian leg-spinner who is always in the limelight is Royal Challengers Bangalore's Yuzvendra Chahal. Despite being part of RCB’s atrocious attack over the years, Chahal has been able to make a name as one of the crafty practitioners of this art.
The domination of leg-spinners is not just restricted to the IPL. Even in international T20 games, two bowlers among the top five are leg spinners (Shahid Afridi and Rashid Khan). West Indies’ Samual Badree may not have the numbers of wickets like Afridi or Khan but his role as a ‘new-ball’ bowler has nothing short of a revolution. Badree opened the bowling in 160 of his 197 T20 matches. No spinner has bowled more than Badree in power play overs in T20 history.
“Badree was our spin consultant last season (in the IPL). You have to be very accurate if you want to bowl with the new ball. In fact, I have had a lot of discussions with Anil Kumble over the years who too has told me that with the new ball, your options (to attack) are limited and if you err slightly, can go for boundaries,” says Mishra in complete admiration of the West Indian.
The overwhelming impact of leg-spinners as match-winners can be witnessed in T20 leagues across the world. The top 10 bowlers in T20s have three leg-spinners. Along with Afridi and Rashid, there is one name who has got 380 wickets (more than Afridi and Rashid) and is more famous for his wild jubilation after taking a wicket, South Africa’s Imran Tahir. “If you contain the runs, you will get wickets. In T20, batsmen are always going after you, so a good policy is to bowl five-six dot balls in your first two-three overs so that pressure builds on the batsman and he plays riskier shots,” explained Tahir to me a couple of years back.
For the first time in the IPL, a former leg-spinner is a head coach of a franchise. Incidentally, Kumble’s Kings XI Punjab also has a young leg-spinner in Ravi Bishnoi who was the highest wicket-taker in 2020 Under 19 World Cup. The 20-year-old Rajasthan player has played just six T20 games but who knows that he could be the next big leg-spinner by the end of this IPL?
Vimal Kumar is a senior sports journalist who has covered multiple cricket world cups and Rio Olympics in the last two decades. Vimal is also the author of Sachin: Cricketer Of The Century and The Cricket Fanatic’s Essential Guide.
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