Cricket, now more than ever, is a batsman’s game. From WG Grace’s “They’ve come to see me bat, not you bowl,” cricket has always been, and continues to be, firmly in favour of the batsmen.
Nowadays, with the advent of field restrictions, massive bats and tiny boundaries, batsmen have found innovative ways to use the rules to their advantage. Through pioneers such as Eoin Morgan, AB de Villiers and Colin Munro, we see a new approach to batting – 360° scoring. A yorker, the traditional, “perfect death bowling ball” can now be hit over the wicketkeeper’s head by a batsman standing outside his off stump.
It’s high time bowlers start thinking outside the box, before they become glorified bowling machines. The solution will not be found looking into the future, but instead, into the past. Cricket, somewhere along the way, lost a type of bowling that was once a staple of the game. Medium-paced spin.
What exactly is medium-paced spin?
This is not to be confused with off-cutters and leg-cutters. This isn’t just running the fingers over the ball, this is full blown spin. Pace bowling with a rip. It comes at the batsman at 110-125 kph, drifts in like a leg-break and then spins away at pace. Absolutely 100% unplayable.
The fast spinner was an absolute essential in the weaponry of the 19th and early 20th-century bowler when overarm bowling was first allowed. Bowlers tried to get the best of both worlds, bowling pacy deliveries that spun both ways.
Bowlers like George Lohmann, Fred Spofforth, AG Steel, WG Grace, Hugh Trumble and Monty Noble, some of whom had scarcely believable averages and strike rates, developed this art and unleashed it on batsmen on occasion. But it was Sydney Barnes who made it his stock delivery for the middle overs.
A captain’s worst nightmare is when the pitch isn’t spinning or seaming. Most go defensive, drying up the runs until the ball begins to reverse. However, this was not the case when Barnes was around. He terrorised batsmen by producing pace, bounce and spin, effectively taking the pitch out of the equation. He perfected an art that could well be the next frontier for bowlers.
With the advent of T20 cricket, finger spinners bowling consistently over 100kph is not uncommon, and the recently concluded IPL saw just that.
So who uses medium-paced spin today?
Bowlers like Washington Sundar and Imad Wasim, who bowl in consistently good areas with little variation other than in pace, have been gradually increasing their speed to ‘medium-pace’ levels and their effectiveness can be seen on turning tracks.
Leg-spinners, too, are following suit, and in recent times wrist-spinners have focused less on their flight and drift and more on darting the ball in as fast as possible. While Kumble and Afridi used this very successfully in international cricket in the early 2000s, Rashid Khan’s unique style of bowling is the one that is most similar to Barnes’ at the top level. Hitting the high 90s, he spins the ball both ways, bringing his arm through rapidly.
Another type of modern medium-paced spinner is a bowler who receives the ‘mystery spinner’ tag. Sunil Narine and Ajantha Mendis befuddled batsmen in their day with a simple technique. They held the ball seam up and gave it a flick with the wrist, either forwards or backwards, at the point of release to make it spin in the direction they wanted.
This is very similar to the method Barnes used to put revs on the ball. However, the most successful exponent of medium-paced spin is Mustafizur Rahman, whose deadly ‘cutter’ gained international acclaim. However, in actuality, this is conventional off-spin, just bowled by a medium pacer. Rahman gives the ball a rip, thereby applying the overspin that creates the bounce he is famous for.
Why they are effective
The reason for the success of medium paced spin is that it makes batsmen play spinners as they would fast bowlers. Batsmen cannot defend all the way in front, or use shots like the sweep and lap shot. Medium-paced spin is also effective to wrest control in the middle overs, when the batsmen thrive.
Often, on subcontinental pitches, fast bowlers are used in a holding capacity in Test matches, to wear out a pitch till the spinners can come in and wreak havoc. The medium-pace spinner turns that dynamic on its head. In the shorter formats, this type of bowler will often induce the outside edge and cause batsmen to mis-hit the ball.
While cutters only cause a small deviation, medium pace spin forces batsmen to play for the spin, which makes batting exponentially tougher. Furthermore, medium-spin bowlers often use a quicker one, a delivery 10-15kph faster than the stock, spinning ball, and can take a batsman completely by surprise.
Mustafizur used this effectively with his yorkers in the 2016 IPL. It is no surprise that on spinning, slow wickets, quick spinners would be effective. One does not need to look further than Kumble in one of his classic spells, or Rashid Khan’s demolition of the West Indies a few days ago, for proof.
Shane Warne said time and again that “if it [a pitch] seams, it spins” and it cannot be emphasised enough how effective a medium-paced spinner would be on a seaming wicket, making the ball deviate too much to play, and drift in too much to leave.
Why we don’t see more medium-paced spinners around today
Given the effectiveness of quick spin, it is surprising that cricket has not seen more of it, especially on dry pitches. However, a focus on bowlers that could make the ball swing a long way, and bowl consistently over 135 kph wiped out the very notion of the next Sydney Barnes.
Furthermore, coaching academies that abide by the book often crush innovative actions before they have time to mature. It remains to be seen what the effect of the action is on the body; it is not surprising that it puts great strain on the arm and shoulder muscles and Mustafizur, the closest embodiment of the medium-paced spinner, has already suffered a major shoulder injury, possibly due to his unique action.
However, given that he and Rashid Khan have both now gotten mass media attention, it is only a matter of time before spinners begin to get faster and pacers start to flick their wrists when bowling cutters.
Every few decades, sports go through watershed moments. One player or one team tries something innovative, which makes it the industry standard. Cricket has stumbled on many in its day, and perhaps the medium-paced spinner is next. It checks all the boxes.
Teams are searching for bowlers who can take pace off the ball, making it difficult to hit. More and more bowlers are speaking about the importance of variety for success in the shorter formats, and medium-paced spin counters the white ball’s surprising lack of swing in recent times by replacing it with drift.
Medium-paced spin is not a novelty item to be used by one Bangladeshi a few times before it fades into obscurity, but it is a cure for the runs disease plaguing the game and in the years to come, it will be the new, old, normal.
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
