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

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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.