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Types of Spin Bowling in Cricket: All You Need to Know

There are primarily nine types of spin bowling in cricket that off-spinners and leg spinners can use as variations. Know about all of them with popular examples

Subhayan Dutta
Subhayan Dutta

Last Updated: 2024-09-02

Kaylan Geekie

6 minutes read

 Australian bowler Shane Warne (2nd-L) bowls to England's Andrew Strauss

Image Credits:GREG WOOD/AFP via Getty Images

While spin bowling can broadly be divided into two types - off spin and leg spin - there are nine different types of spin bowling in cricket. All spin bowling is a variation of either off-spin or leg spin. 

Having used intimidation as their primary weapon for decades, bowlers had realized it wasn’t enough. Hence, they introduced the art of deception in their weaponry and it has since worked like a charm. Though a spin bowler would often need a friendly pitch to execute his skills to perfection, it could be deadly when done perfectly.

Different Types of Spin Bowling in Cricket

The primary objective that a bowler seeks to attain through spin bowling is to deviate the ball’s path after it bounces on the pitch just before a batter plays it, to break his defense. Spin can be achieved by adding rapid rotations to a cricket ball either by using fingers or the wrist.

However, merely adding rotations and revolutions to a ball is insufficient if the ball isn’t pitched at a perfect length and a slower pace, thus allowing it to change its direction, trajectory and more. A spin bowler, or a spinner, often delivers at the range of 70-90 kmph and has more variations up his or her arsenal compared to a pace bowler. 

Leg-Spin

Leg spin is considered one of the best parts of all bowling techniques. If you have a team member who is the best leg spinner, it is worth more than gold. In this type of bowling, the bowler uses the wrist to give a spin to the ball. Here, the bowler flicks the ball with their wrist by turning the ball.

Googly

The most popular form of spin bowling is googly, which is essentially a leg spinner bowling an off-spin with the same grip and a seemingly similar wrist movement. A googly is bowled with the leg-break grip but it is twisted just before releasing the ball, which enables the ball to do an off-spin after bouncing. Hence, while a right-handed batsman would expect a leg spin to move away from him or her, a googly is designed to stun the player and move inwards. Wrist action is fundamental in executing a perfect googly and cricket has maestros like Shane Warne and Anil Kumble, who could hide the spin until the very last moment to bowl unplayable deliveries.

eg spin bowler Shane Warne of Australia bowls

Image Credits: Jack Atley/ALLSPORT

Top Spin

Yet another way to make the ball move unusually post-bounce is the top spin delivery. A top spinner aims to make the ball bounce higher after it bounces on the pitch with a grip that is almost similar to a leg break. The only difference remains that the wrist is kept quite straight and instead of twisting the wrist, the fingers are rolled over the top of the ball creating more spin than required.

Hence, the ball not only moves away from the batsman but also bounces more thus making it difficult to play shots like paddle sweep and resulting in top edges. India’s Anil Kumble mastered this spin bowling, as well as his fast deliveries, making it very difficult for batters to read him.

Slider

The idea of bowling a slider is to make the ball skid off the surface after the bounce and increase its speed despite being released at a slow pace. A slider is usually released with a backspin added to the ball from the front of the hand and the seam is pointed towards the batter. The trick is to add spin towards the back of the ball by rolling the fingers which helps it to “slide” off the turf.

Australian spin bowler Shane Warne in action during England's

Image Credits: Fairfax Media via Getty Images/Fairfax Media via Getty Images via Getty Images

Former Australian bowler and spin-bowling legend Shane Warne was a master in executing perfect sliders that often fetched him wickets through LBW.

Flipper

One of the more recent inventions in spin bowling and an extremely difficult skill to master, a flipper is bowled by pinching the ball between one's fingers and the thumb to release it with an acute flick. This action forces the ball to backspin very fast thus reducing its bounce significantly after skidding off the turf. Warne was brilliant at using flippers and bamboozling batters with a low bounce.

Off-Spin

As the name suggests, an off-spin is bowled with the idea of spinning the ball on the off side of a batter, which is his or her right side regardless of a right-handed or left-handed batsman. More commonly used against right-handed batters, an off-spin comes towards the batsman after bouncing off the pitch to deceive the bat and getting dismissed in the process.

There are primarily five kinds of off-spin variations that bowlers use in cricket:

Doosra

What googly is to a leg spinner, a doosra is for an off-spinner. However, a doosra could be way more dangerous as batters can’t read it well. The technique is similar to that of googly. It is released with an off-break grip with the wrist rotating right before the ball is delivered to get the ball away from the batter rather than coming in. 

Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan bowls

Image Credits: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP via Getty Images

The primary challenge in bowling a doosra is to keep the off-break grip look the same to disguise the bowling action. The inventor of doosra was former Pakistan cricket legend Saqlain Mushtaq, which was later perfected by cricket’s highest-ever wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan.

Carrom Ball

Yet another form of off-spin that disguises the grip and deceives the batter brilliantly is the carrom ball. This is bowled by quickly releasing the ball with a flick through the thumb and a construed middle finger. The release action resonates with flicking a carrom disc, hence the name - carrom ball.

A carrom ball can be used to turn the ball both ways from the same action, which depends on the grip. Former Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis used it to perfection thus being labeled as the “mystery spinner”.

Arm-Ball

An arm ball is the most effective when used between regular spells of off-spin bowling, as this variation is fundamentally used to restrict the delivery from spinning. With the usual off-break action, an arm ball can either go straight or even swing away from the batter. The bowler has to keep the seam position upright and deceive the batter into thinking that the ball will spin.

India’s star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is known to use the arm-ball to a great extent and succeed.

Under Cutter

One of the lesser-used off-spin variations today, an under-cutter could be tremendously useful if executed to perfection. An under-cutter can be achieved by rolling one’s fingers down the backside of the ball, which enables the ball to cut below the bat after it pitches on the turf. It is a difficult skill to achieve as the seam position here should be pointed towards the slip to ensure that the ball stays very low.

English cricketer Jim Laker (1922 - 1986) playing for England

Image Credits: Central Press/Getty Images

An under-cutter is quite handy on dry and dusty surfaces. Former English spinner Jim Laker was known to use it well.

Flicker

Very similar to a carrom ball, a flicker is often used to confuse the batter and check runs during a match. A flicker has the same release action as the carrom ball but it involves a quick flick rather than the slow, conventional rolling of fingers. A bowler must have great finger strength and flexibility of writs to properly bowl this highly skilled delivery.

Types of Spinner (Right & Left Hand)

As if such a plethora of spin variations weren’t enough, a batter also has to deal with right-handed and left-handed bowlers, who elevate the difficulty level. There are four kinds of spinners that we are going to discuss below: 

Right-arm Off-break Spinner

One of the most commonly found spinners in the cricketing circuit, a right-arm off-break spinner uses his or her right arm to bowl off-spin. His bowling action and deliveries are primarily designed to bring the ball towards a batter’s body. Bowling an off-spin doesn’t require one to use the writs, just the fingers, which has primarily seen many part-time bowlers resorting to it. A bowler can make a ball spin towards the batsman by rolling the middle and index fingers to the right side of the ball to generate a clockwise spine.  

Indian bowler Harbhajan Singh

Image Credits:Satish Bate/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Right-arm Leg Spinner (or wrist spinner)

One of the most popular forms of spin bowling is the right-handed leg spin. A right-arm leg spinner uses his or her right hand’s wrist to spin the ball from left to right. This means the ball will move away from a right-handed batter and come in for a left-hander. The use of the wrist in the leg-spin helps them cover their grip and deceive the batter. When the surface gets old and dry, a leg-spinner can be extremely lethal. 

Left-arm Orthodox Spinner

Simply put, a left-arm orthodox spinner is a left-handed bowler bowling an off-break. The bowling action and release are the same, but their deliveries will come as a leg-spin for the right-handed batters and vice versa. Like most off-spinners, the left-arm orthodox spinner uses pace and spin to prevent runs. A few examples of them in modern cricket are Ravindra Jadeja, Rangana Herath, Daniel Vettori, and Shakib-Al-Hasan.

Ravindra Jadeja of India bowls during the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup India

Image Credits: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Left-Arm Leg Spinner (or a Chinaman bowler)

A very rare bowler to find is a left-arm leg spinner, so much so any side having such a player is considered a privilege. Very similar to a left-arm orthodox bowler, a chinaman bowler uses his wrist to bowl leg-spin, which brings the ball away from left-handers and inwards the right-handed batters. The best examples of them would be former Australian bowler Brad Hogg and current Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav.

FAQs

What is the difference between off-spin and leg-spin?

The most fundamental difference between off-spin and leg-spin bowling is of course the direction where the ball goes after bounce. A right-arm leg spinner would turn the ball from the leg to the off when bowling a right-hander, while an off-spinner will bowl in the opposite direction.

Which is the best type of spin?

In terms of technique, a leg-spin is considered the best as the bowler can hide his grip and deceive the batter to a large extent. It is difficult to strike the ball that is moving away from the batter, which makes leg-spinners so in-demand. And if a leg spinner excels in all the variations explained above, a team gets very strong.

Who is the father of spin bowling?

English spinner Bernard Bosanquet is referred to as the Father of Spin Bowling as he invented the googly and changed cricket forever. Bosanquet played a total of 235 first-class matches and seven Test matches in his cricket career and ended up taking 629 wickets.

Who is the god of leg spin?

Without a doubt, former Australian bowler Shane Warne is considered the god of leg-spin for his unparalleled contribution to cricket. He retired with 708 Test wickets and 293 ODI wickets.

Subhayan Dutta
Subhayan DuttaSports Writer

An M.A. in English Literature, Subhayan is an experienced journalist and sports writer. Having worked as a journalist at Hindustan Times, Subhayan covered diverse beats including sports, education, and health, showcasing his versatility and in-depth understanding of various subjects.