Why the lack of left arm wristspinners throughout history ?

[Coronis]

I always have time for left-arm wrist spinners, I used to bowl them myself when I played cricket before going on to become an umpire. It's difficult because there are more right-handers in world cricket (more right-handers in general throughout the world) and as a left-arm wrist spinner - you need to keep it tight...not a lot to work with in terms of you need to keep the ball outside off stump, anything on middle stump or worse and the ball turns down legside if bowling the leggie. Plus a ball is much more dangerous when turning away from the batsman - more opportunities to get a batter out when the ball is turning away.

As for Bevan, his bowling average in Test cricket was 26, not bad for a part-timer.

Almost as good as his batting average.

 

[The_CricketUmpire]

I bowled right arm leg breaks, and I found left handers very enjoyable to bowl at. It only needed change of perspective of your bowling. Against left handers , your stock ball has to be top spinner or leg spinner with plenty of overspin, producing dip and bounce and threatening outside edge. If you can bowl cross seam leggies, you can then easily slip in the normal legspinner, which will pitch little fuller and spin back. If you have bowled your topspinners well, batsman will now be on back foot shaping to cut everything. Normal lagbreak will spin back, keep low (because it is fuller) and most of the time beat the cut to the sumps.

It is mirror image for left arm wristies.

I found my wrong-un got more wickets then my leggie.

 

[Daemon]

I’m curious, say you were proficient at bowling both types of spin, would you need to inform the umpire at all prior to any balls or just randomly switch it up for fun? (I assume you might have to if you were actually switching arms)

You only have to inform which arm and which side of the wicket

 

[ataraxia]

You only have to inform which arm and which side of the wicket

Yeah, presumably, otherwise: variations = illegal

 

[ankitj]

this is discounting Kuldeep’s calamitous loss of form and confidence around 2018-19 after being smashed by Moeen in ipl.. until years later he was never the same player. he had to learn to bowl quicker through the air for one

This should have never impacted his chances of selection for test format. And not sure if it did. He just has very very stiff competition from other spinners all of whom are more than handy batters.

 

[Socerer 01]

This should have never impacted his chances of selection for test format. And not sure if it did. He just has very very stiff competition from other spinners all of whom are more than handy batters.

it did tbh, Nadeem and Jayant both played tests in the interval. not sure if it was the reason for him being that bad in Chennai test but he was bad there

 

[Migara]

I found my wrong-un got more wickets then my leggie.

That is a very bad precedent. Googly will take over the skills to bowl a venomous leggie.

I never had a good googly. . The tell on the action was too much. Spun the leg break real big. It was leg breaks, top spins, back spinners with cross seam stuff to add variability was what I bowled. Younger days when I was more flexible, delivered a UFO ball which went straight on (pitching on shiny side). I was frowned upon by seamers for that antique however.

 

[shortpitched713]

Younger days when I was more flexible, delivered a UFO ball which went straight on (pitching on shiny side). I was frowned upon by seamers for that antique however.

So why didn't you just flip it around, to pitch on the rough side?

 

[shortpitched713]

If you think about it, Murali bowled something analogous to left arm wrist spin, as he was a right arm "reverse" wrist spinner, bowling his stock ball into the right hander.

Thing is, as Migara alluded to much earlier in the thread, that style of bowling, and the grip required, makes it really freaking hard to bowl from a control perspective (analogous again more to a wrist than finger spinner). And certainly the supernatural flexibility of wrist and shoulder that Murali possessed, helped him in no small measure.

But Murali to me spun the ball no more than Warne, nor had and greater scope for variation (both had doosra or googly, although doosra is a bit harder to pick).

So to me the style Murali employed means there is scope for success for a left arm wrist spinner too. All it would take is to find an all time talent out of an already diminished pool due to there being less left handers, and lower barrier to entry spin style (orthodox) cannibalizing their talent. Easy enough.

 

[Chin Music]

I take the point about off spinners being more accurate, but it is still a bit of a surprise that there haven't been more since DRS given the greater ease of getting lbws.

 

[Ali TT]

If you think about it, Murali bowled something analogous to left arm wrist spin, as he was a right arm "reverse" wrist spinner, bowling his stock ball into the right hander.

Thing is, as Migara alluded to much earlier in the thread, that style of bowling, and the grip required, makes it really freaking hard to bowl from a control perspective (analogous again more to a wrist than finger spinner). And certainly the supernatural flexibility of wrist and shoulder that Murali possessed, helped him in no small measure.

But Murali to me spun the ball no more than Warne, nor had and greater scope for variation (both had doosra or googly, although doosra is a bit harder to pick).

So to me the style Murali employed means there is scope for success for a left arm wrist spinner too. All it would take is to find an all time talent out of an already diminished pool due to there being less left handers, and lower barrier to entry spin style (orthodox) cannibalizing their talent. Easy enough.

Isn't it standard for an offie's stock delivery to be into RH batters?

 

[sledger]

Nobody will ever be as good as Katich.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

I recently switched to SLA in social cricket and it really is a stupidly easy form of bowling at the lower levels. No point spending years perfecting a ripping left arm offbreak when angling it in and turning it away a smidge is instantly effective

 

[The_CricketUmpire]

That is a very bad precedent. Googly will take over the skills to bowl a venomous leggie.

I never had a good googly. . The tell on the action was too much. Spun the leg break real big. It was leg breaks, top spins, back spinners with cross seam stuff to add variability was what I bowled. Younger days when I was more flexible, delivered a UFO ball which went straight on (pitching on shiny side). I was frowned upon by seamers for that antique however.

Well I could bowl my stock ball too but found the wrong-un got more wickets.

 

[Migara]

So why didn't you just flip it around, to pitch on the rough side?

Then it spins for some odd reason. Not as hard as while it hits the seam.

I some times bowled first change with the new cherry. Then there was no rough side by the 10th over.