Aug 8

Aug 8 5 Best Leg Spinners of All Time

The Top Leg Spinners in Cricket History

Leg-spin bowling is an art, and numerous outstanding leg-spinners have beautifully crafted that art.

Leg-spinner innovations and variations always make life difficult for the batters, particularly in test cricket. These include the googly, flipper, slider, quicker and zooter.

These spin bowling species have steadily increased along with the evolution and diversification of the gentleman's game.

What is Spin Bowling?

In cricket, leg spin is a specific kind of spin bowling. Right-arm bowling with a wrist spin is performed by a leg spinner.

When a leg spinner bowls normally, the ball bounces on the pitch and spins (from the bowler's perspective) from right to left.

Leg break refers to a pitch that is away from the batsman's leg side for a right-handed batsman.

Top Leg Spinners of All Time

In cricket history, many great players have left their mark on the sport's annals with mind-blowing deliveries and spells that left batsmen scrambling for cover.

Each leg spinner is unique and possesses a variety of unique skills and methods.

In this article, we will discuss the top leg-break bowlers who have ever lived. They pounded the wickets, whirled the ball and won the hearts and minds of fans all over the world.

1. Shane Warne

Well, what can we say about the legend who single-handedly revolutionised the leg spin world of cricket? We’ve all seen the Ball of the Century that Warne gave to Mike Gatting, leaving him perplexed as if he'd seen a ghost.

Warne, one of the most endearing athletes to ever play the game, is still regarded as one of the best match-winners of all time. He was the absolute best at bowling with a leg spin.

Warne played for Australia in 145 Test matches, recording 708 wickets with 37 5-wicket hauls.

He was the most crucial member of the great Australian team back in the 1990s and 2000s and he tormented everyone from the English to the Kiwis to the South Africans.

The best Test match statistics for Warne were 8/71, which included a hat-trick against England.

In addition, Warne had 1319 first-class wickets at a strike rate of 26.11 and 293 wickets in 194 ODIs. The world might never see another Shane Warne, as his class was unmatchable.

2. Anil Kumble

India's top wicket-taker, Anil Kumble has taken 619 wickets in 132 Test matches for an average of 29.65.

The superstar is regarded as one of the best and most-decorated Indian cricketers to ever grace the game. Behind Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne, Kumble has taken the third-most wickets of all time.

He is also the second bowler, behind Jim Laker, to ever take all ten wickets in an innings. With an astounding 10/74 against Pakistan, he accomplished that feat.

Kumble achieved all of these things despite facing criticism early in his career because he was never a great ball-turner.

While competing on the international stage, his two greatest weapons were accuracy and a devastating flipper.

3. Abdul Qadir

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Abdul Qadir revived the dwindling art of leg spin. He was a true wizard with the ball. He would rise from a loping, bounce-filled run-up to the wicket and throw the ball with great ostentation.

Qadir had multiple standard leg-spin presentations that varied the ball's flight and turn, to enchant up a wide range of combinations.

He bowled the top spinner and the flipper with great precision and effect, and he owned at least two different googlies. He frequently had too many options and used too much variety, rather than developing a rhythm.

He was one of the primary attacking bowlers used by the legendary Pakistani captain Imran Khan.

However, his statistics suffered as a result of the umpires' frequent inability to comprehend the subtleties of his bowling strokes.

Qadir's numbers would have been vastly different if DRS and ball tracking systems had been around in his time. Abdul Qadir played 67 games in his well-rounded test career for Pakistan and claimed 236 wickets at an astounding average of 32.8.

4. Richie Benaud

Richie Benaud was frequently referred to as the "Voice of Cricket”. He came to personify the game in all of its guises, from batsman to captain to writer to commentator to thinker!

He has been listed as one of cricket's all-time greats, right behind Sir Donald Bradman. Benaud is the only all-rounder on this list and the only all-rounder who bowls spin.

He was the first player to score 2,000 test runs and take 200 wickets. He participated in 63 tests, taking 248 wickets at an average of 27.03.

The ability to keep the batsmen at their toes makes him stand out from other players.

A thrifty, leg-spin bowler is such a rare combination- and it almost seems to go against convention. However, Benaud had it all!

5. Mushtaq Ahmed

Another Pakistani star to make our list is Mushtaq Ahmed.

He modelled his persona after Intikhab Alam and Abdul Qadir. Mushtaq was an exceptional bowler with an impulsive tenacity. The delivery of the ball was followed by a hazy whirling of arms after a short but energetic run-up to the wicket.

He would beg the umpire for a favourable ruling through frantic and wild appeals, and he would become visibly discouraged if the umpire ignored his straighter one or googly or allowed a batsman to escape despite intentional padding.

To help the umpire follow the line and trajectory of the ball, he was occasionally known to let the umpire know which ball he would bowl next in advance.

In 52 Tests for Pakistan, this Sahiwal native and master spinner destroyed the batsmen 185 times. In 144 starts for Pakistan in one-day internationals, he also claimed 161 wickets.