The doosra is gone. It is dead and was laid to rest in cricket’s final resting place, never to be viewed again. The delivery that almost every finger spinner strived to bowl — and felt inferior if they could not – has all but disappeared from the game. And those who traded in the delivery found, after it departed from their repertoire, that they were not quite the force they were.
Experts like Bishan Bedi and Michael Holding had long held that it’s extremely difficult, impossible even, to bowl the delivery with an authentic action. Their argument seems to have a measure of truth, and so when the authorities decided to place bowling actions under scrutiny it was not all that surprising when the doosra practitioners were found to be in contravention of the law governing legal bowling actions. At the current time, it is difficult to think of a single bowler who has the delivery in his arsenal.
It should be noted here that the deliveries from Ravichandran Ashwin, Sunil Narine and a few others offspinners that turn from leg are not Doosras in the original sense, utilizing the wrist to impart anti-clockwise spin. Rather, they are Carrom balls in some cases and what are being labelled “knuckle” balls in others.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Doosra came into vogue. Saqlain Mushtaq is always listed as its inventor, though there are those who say it was in use much earlier. At the very least, Saqlain was the bowler who popularized the delivery, the first to bowl it consistently. The seed he planted grew to the point where it was felt in many circles that off spinners had to have a bit of mystery about them to be effective at the highest level.
Experts like Bishan Bedi and Michael Holding had long held that it’s extremely difficult, impossible even, to bowl the delivery with an authentic action. Their argument seems to have a measure of truth, and so when the authorities decided to place bowling actions under scrutiny it was not all that surprising when the doosra practitioners were found to be in contravention of the law governing legal bowling actions. At the current time, it is difficult to think of a single bowler who has the delivery in his arsenal.
It should be noted here that the deliveries from Ravichandran Ashwin, Sunil Narine and a few others offspinners that turn from leg are not Doosras in the original sense, utilizing the wrist to impart anti-clockwise spin. Rather, they are Carrom balls in some cases and what are being labelled “knuckle” balls in others.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Doosra came into vogue. Saqlain Mushtaq is always listed as its inventor, though there are those who say it was in use much earlier. At the very least, Saqlain was the bowler who popularized the delivery, the first to bowl it consistently. The seed he planted grew to the point where it was felt in many circles that off spinners had to have a bit of mystery about them to be effective at the highest level.
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