BOWLING : You Don't Need Every Variation to Be an Excellent Spin Bowler

Mushtaq Ahmed, Graeme Swann, Syd Barnes and Shane Warne: Each player a unique and world-class spin bowler of his time.

None of them used every variation in the book.

They didn’t need them all. They maintain their deception by varying the angle of spin within a small region either side of their stock delivery.

Subtle and devastating

Of course, the first thing any spinner must master is the ability to bowl a good stock delivery, pitching on a good line and length with good turn. They could all do that. But to consistently trouble and dismiss this higher class of batsman, our famous four need a few to be able to unlock defences.

They all knew that if you try to do something totally different to your stock delivery, the ball becomes too easy to pick.

So let’s take inspiration from the masters to look at a few classic combinations that you can use.

Remember; don’t stray too far from your stock ball!

Mushtaq Ahmed

With a loopier style this stock delivery is a leg break with a mixture of topspin and sidespin.

His main variations will be the googly, and a delivery bowled slightly flatter with less topspin and more sidespin.

A slightly quicker top spinner is another option that gives extra bounce.

Here is a diagram of how spin is imparted on the ball.

The circles represent the ball, and the red lines represent the angle of spin. So 12 o'clock is topspin, 3 o'clock is off spin, 6 o'clock is backspin and 9 o'clock is leg spin.

The pink area is the directions of spin Mushie can bowl without completely changing his action. It's a range 45 degrees either side of the stock ball:

Loopy leg spin

(It's interesting to note that the extremely unique action of Muttiah Muralidaran resulted in him being the mirror image of the loopy legspinner, with the doosra replacing the googly.)

Shane Warne

The skiddy leg spinner’s stock delivery is a hard spun side spinner.

After his shoulder surgery in the early part of the 21st century Shane Warne was left without an effective wrong'un or flipper, and his main variation was now in flight. He either mixed in a little topspin and slowed the delivery up to tempt the batsman into a misjudged drive, or mixed in backspin and skidded the ball through - the famous "slider" that picked him up key lbw decisions in the 2005 Ashes.

skiddy leg spin

Graeme Swann

The classic off spin delivery is an off break with an element of topspin used to get dip and bounce.

Swann’s variations are:

• Mixing in extra topspin for accentuated bounce at the expense of a little turn
• Skidding the ball through flatter with backspin and using the drift to attack the opposite edge of the bat. If the seam is angled correctly, this backspin delivery may even swing through the air - the famous arm-ball.

Swann doesn't use the arm-ball very often, preferring to rely on drift, but a bowler like Derek Underwood was able to swing the ball a considerable amount.

Classic off spin

S.F. Barnes

Sydney Barnes is widely accepted as the best bowler of all time. He was able to bowl both leg breaks and off breaks with no discernible change in action. The ball skidded through with backspin (at a considerable pace). The batsman found it difficult to guess which way it would jag upon pitching:

Leg spin/back spin

Although this style is now a rare sight at the professional level, a subtle mixture of straight balls, off cutters and leg cutters is still an extremely effective ploy on poorly covered village and club wickets.

They key is to remember not to slavishly copy these methods but to get inspiration. Then you can create your own style of spin bowling.