The Magicians return to the World of Cricket

Imran Tahir (SA), Amit Mishra (Ind) and Yasir Shah (Pak) are the three best exponents of leg spin at present

The words ‘sports’ and ‘magic’ have been synonymous with each other since ages.

Every sport, be it football, cricket, tennis, athletics or basketball for that matter, keeps having its own rendezvous with magic as frequently as every day. In football, it can be a curling long range free-kick finding the back of the net while in tennis, it may be a beautifully placed winner from a near impossible angle.

But magic in sport does not happen by itself; you require magicians who have the capability to create magic.

Cricket has its own magicians too, but there is a rare breed among them which can conjure up tricks almost at will – leg spinners. The unmatched beauty of seeing a leg spinner in action is one of the greatest pleasures in the game of cricket.

Over the past several decades, there have been a number of exponents of this exceptional art who have given some magical moments to behold for cricket fans and pundits alike.

How Leg Spin Bowling Evolved Over the Years

Although leg spin had been around for a long time since the inception of the game, this style of bowling really started to gain prominence only in the late 1950s with the emergence of Australian leggie Richie Benaud. In a career lasting 63 Test matches, Benaud picked up an impressive tally of 248 wickets and became the then most successful leg spinner in cricket history, surpassing fellow Australian Clarrie Grimmett who had 216.

After Benaud’s retirement, the baton of leg spin bowling got passed on to an Indian bowler who had grown up idolising the great Australian; that man was none other than the legendary B.S. Chandrasekhar.

‘Chandra’, however, had a slightly different style compared to Richie Benaud’s slower, more conventional leg spin. It was more leg break and the ball hurried on to the batsmen without too much turn and took them by surprise.

B.S. Chandrasekhar, too, had a highly successful career as he managed to claim 242 wickets in just 58 Tests.

Towards the end of the 1970s, fears over the death of the art of leg spin had started to emerge and there was a desperate need for someone to revive it. As luck would have it, the prayers of the cricketing world were answered in the form of the arrival of legendary Pakistani leg spinner Abdul Qadir.

Qadir was more in the Richie Benaud mode and was highly adept at dishing out all the major weapons of a leggie such as the googly, the flipper and the top-spinner among others. The Pakistani went on to become one of the most successful spinners for his country.

The Emergence of Two Champion Leg Spinners in One Era

The leg spin juggernaut did not stop at Qadir’s retirement; instead it spilled over to his neighbouring country India, where a certain Anil Kumble emerged with his faster leg-break variety of bowling, which was on the lines of fellow Indian B.S. Chandrasekhar. Just two years later, the cricketing world became witness to the arrival of the man who is now known as the greatest leg spinner to have played the game, Shane Keith Warne.

While Kumble was busy foxing batsmen with his pace and variations, Warne went on to weave his magic by turning the ball square, as he did so famously in the 1993 Ashes while clean bowling Englishman Graham Gooch round the legs with his ‘Ball of the Century’.

Both these legendary leg spinners continued to go on hand-in-hand almost throughout their career as they eclipsed one record after another in their quest to become the greatest of all time.

The magical things that the two of them conjured during their career span took them to the pinnacle of glory – they now proudly sit on top of the heap among the top wicket-takers of all time – Warne in 2nd place and Kumble in 3rd – with only Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan above them.

Despite being different in their styles, they were both equally responsible for raising the bar for leg spin bowling in world cricket, which most of the others from their time and beyond found difficult to emulate.

The Magic of Leg Spin Resurfaces after Fears of Fading Away

Until some time back, doubts over the future of leg spin bowling had slowly started to creep in once again with the growing dearth of its exponents, with Warne and Kumble retiring. But one of cricket’s greatest arts has staged a remarkable recovery relying on the exploits of three leg spinners from Pakistan, India and South Africa respectively – Yasir Shah, Amit Mishra and Imran Tahir.

While Yasir Shah has been taking heaps of wickets since his debut for Pakistan in 2014, Amit Mishra has finally found a Test captain who has full faith in the magic he can work with the ball. On the other hand, Imran Tahir is trying to make up for lost time by becoming the spinner South Africa have longed for during what may be the final stage of his career.

In the recent past, all three of them have been making their contributions not only in the success of their teams but also in bringing the magic of leg spin bowling back to world cricket.

Tahir is slowly becoming the man that the Proteas can trust on pitches which are not suited to their battery of pace bowlers, as he proved by being instrumental in helping his team bounce back to draw the 2013 Test series against Pakistan in the UAE. As for Mishra, he has become new Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli's go-to man whenever the team needs a breakthrough and the leggie has not disappointed.

However, it must be said that it is Yasir Shah who, at present, deserves the biggest credit for breathing new life into this phenomenal art which only a few have been able to master. The way in which he has skyrocketed his way to the 3rd position of the ICC Test rankings for bowlers is a testimony to how exceptional his performance has been in the past 12 months.

In fact, he has been a driving force behind a super-successful year for Pakistan in Tests so far.

A Look at the Future

The re-emergence of quality leg spinners in the international arena has prompted most teams to begin the search for talented leggies within their respective domestic structures. A few examples of upcoming leg spin talent include Yuzvendra Chahal and Karn Sharma for India, Adil Rashid and Scott Borthwick for England and Jubair Hossain of Bangladesh, among others.

With a new found passion among the cricketing nations about re-exploring the magic that only leg spin bowling can bring about, it will not be wrong to say that indeed the magicians have returned to the world of cricket.