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Why the lack of left arm wristspinners throughout history ?

Senile Sentry

Senile Sentry

International Debutant
Fuller Pilch said:
Sobers the freak bowled left arm medium fast, SLAs, and left arm legspin as well as being a gun fielder, the 1st player to hit 6 6s in a 1st class over, and possibly the 2nd best batsman of all time. Half the posters on here think Jadeja is better though ???!!!
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Man, this post reminded of how Tendulkar was wasted as a bowler. Till about 1996-97, Tendulkar used to bowl all sorts of spin and swing. Could swing it a mile both ways and bowl ripping leg breaks and off breaks that could rival Warne and Murali. And was always dependable as a 6th bowler.
 
Howe_zat

Howe_zat

Audio File
Been tending this list for a while. Top wicket-takers with left arm wrist spin.

Biggest recent change to the top 10 in Tests is Kuldeep Yadav coming along to displace Brad Hogg from the Test list and rocket up to 2nd in internationals. Lakshan Sandakan - who started this effort - has stalled a bit, last playing for Sri Lanka in 2021, but Yadav and Tabraiz Shamsi put together probably means there's more left arm wrist spin in international colours than ever before, so people like Denis Compton are no longer in the internationals top 10. Zahir Khan is the Afghanistan bowler mentioned earlier on I think, currently on 7 wickets from 3 tests and 2/55 in his sole ODI. He's 24, so could well make an impact on the top 10.

It counts all of Wardle's wickets, which I know is inaccurate, but I don't have the footage available to find the real ratio.

Test

1. Paul Adams 134
2. Johnny Wardle 102
3. Chuck Fleetwood-Smith 42
4. Lakshan Sandakan 37
5. Inshan Ali 34
5. Lindsay Kline 34
7. Michael Bevan 29
8. Denis Compton 25
8. Kuldeep Yadav 25
10. Simon Katich 21

All Internationals

1. Brad Hogg 180
2. Kuldeep Yadav 164
3. Paul Adams 163
4. Tabraiz Shamsi 130
5. Johnny Wardle 102
6. Lakshan Sandakan 87
7. Michael Bevan 65
8. Chuck Fleetwood-Smith 42
9. Inshan Ali 34
9. Lindsay Kline 34
 
ankitj

ankitj

Hall of Fame Member
Howe_zat said:
All Internationals

1. Brad Hogg 180
2. Kuldeep Yadav 164
3. Paul Adams 163
4. Tabraiz Shamsi 130
5. Johnny Wardle 102
6. Lakshan Sandakan 87
7. Michael Bevan 65
8. Chuck Fleetwood-Smith 42
9. Inshan Ali 34
9. Lindsay Kline 34
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Wow Kuldeep is set to top that list ?
 
F

Fuller Pilch

Hall of Fame Member
Kenneth Viljoen said:
Brad Hogg was a great ODI wristspinner , helped Australia win two odi world cups

34 WC wickets @19.24 probably the most underrated spinner in Cricket World Cup history
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Imran Tahir was probably the best since Hogg:

40 WC wickets @ 21.17 from 2011-19 (e/r 4.41 in a very fast scoring era). Unfortunately for him (and you) he got no further than 1 WC semi.


Also Mushtaq Ahmed was a HUGE part of Pakistan's win in 92 but most of the accolades go to Imran, Javed, Inzy, and Wasim. His leg spin was vital.
 
Shady Slim

Shady Slim

International Coach
even before getting into the fact that leggies are less accurate than offies and so just get an off spinner to spin it into the right hander
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now say that only one in ten bowlers are wrist spinners (source: trust me i made it up but it sounds right), that's 1.7% of all the bowlers or one in every fifty BEFORE even accounting for qualitative factors. so stands to reason they're as rare as they are really
 
Starfighter

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I must say my view of unorthodox lefties has been somewhat coloured since, having never previously scored more than eight in an innings, I took one for sixteen in an over in junior cricket.

But if we look at all 71 bowlers that statsguru lists as spinners we find 14 wrist spinners (including Adams), Doug Wright can also be added, and some of Sobers and Wardle. That's only a fifth before you consider the tremendous disadvantage of turning the ball into the right hander that a lefty faces (Adams actually made the googly his stock ball to counter this). And a lot of them average over 30.

But then again there are only 10 left armers amongst the 118 listed pace bowlers who've taken over 100 test wickets too (plus Johnston, Sobers and Goddard, who bowled a mix of styles).

In comparison there are 26 orthodox spinners (plus Wardle) amongst the 71 spin bowlers. I think the left arm orthodox line offers a big advantage that encourages left handers to use that style.
 
Kenneth Viljoen

Kenneth Viljoen

International Regular
Starfighter said:
I must say my view of unorthodox lefties has been somewhat coloured since, having never previously scored more than eight in an innings, I took one for sixteen in an over in junior cricket.

But if we look at all 71 bowlers that statsguru lists as spinners we find 14 wrist spinners (including Adams), Doug Wright can also be added, and some of Sobers and Wardle. That's only a fifth before you consider the tremendous disadvantage of turning the ball into the right hander. And a lot of them average over 30.

But then again there are only 10 left armers amongst the 118 listed pace bowlers who've taken over 100 test wickets too (plus Johnston, Sobers and Goddard, who bowled a mix of styles).

In comparison there are 26 orthodox spinners (plus Wardle) amongst the 71 spin bowlers. I think the left arm orthodox line must offer a big advantage that encourages left handers to use that style.
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Left arm wristspin needs a hero in Test cricket, Kuldeep Yadav can be that hero but he doesn't get that support that his Test record demands he should ..
 
Coronis

Coronis

International Coach
Yeah basically left handers are a minority. Spin bowlers are also a minority (outside of playing in say, India). Wrist spinners are also a minority compared with finger spinners. No surprise left arm wrist spinners are rare.
 
S

Socerer 01

International Captain
Coronis said:
Yeah basically left handers are a minority. Spin bowlers are also a minority (outside of playing in say, India). Wrist spinners are also a minority compared with finger spinners. No surprise left arm wrist spinners are rare.
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mother of all minorities
 
Kenneth Viljoen

Kenneth Viljoen

International Regular
Socerer 01 said:
he aint playing because there are 3 better spinners ahead of him, has nothing to do with support
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Kuldeep Yadav made his debut in 2017 , he has played 9 tests in 6 years despite averaging 21 , Axar Patel debuted in 2021 and has played more tests than Kuldeep Yadav .

Kuldeep only got one chance to bowl in Australia , and he got a fifer in a drawn test that Jadeja struggled in , he got one chance in Sri Lanka , picked up 5 wickets @19 ..the only place he didn't really have an impact was England where he was only allowed 9 overs of bowling..

In the Bangladesh series , at the end of 2022 , he picked up 8 wickets in the first test and then got dropped in the second test for Jaydev Unadkat..
He definitely has not gotten the support other spinners in Indian cricket has done if you look at it from a career perspective, the Indian selectors drop him at every opportunity they can but they don't move with the same energy in the batting when it comes to KL Rahul for example.
 
Sunil1z

Sunil1z

International Regular
Kenneth Viljoen said:
Kuldeep Yadav made his debut in 2017 , he has played 9 tests in 6 years despite averaging 21 , Axar Patel debuted in 2021 and has played more tests than Kuldeep Yadav .

Kuldeep only got one chance to bowl in Australia , and he got a fifer in a drawn test that Jadeja struggled in , he got one chance in Sri Lanka , picked up 5 wickets @19 ..the only place he didn't really have an impact was England where he was only allowed 9 overs of bowling..

In the Bangladesh series , at the end of 2022 , he picked up 8 wickets in the first test and then got dropped in the second test for Jaydev Unadkat..
He definitely has not gotten the support other spinners in Indian cricket has done if you look at it from a career perspective, the Indian selectors drop him at every opportunity they can but they don't move with the same energy in the batting when it comes to KL Rahul for example.
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Kuldeep would have played instead of Axar if we had a proper batting order . Axar is the top scorer from both sides in the first 2 Test of BG trophy. So he is playing mainly as a batsman
 
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