The Wrist Spinners Can Spin The Ball Both Ways - Adil Rashid Explains What Makes Leg-Spinners A Massive Threat In T20 Cricket

Adil Rashid, England‘s premier white-ball spinner, speaks about the upsurge in the success of leg-spinner in T20 cricket over the past few years. The fact that the top 4 ICC T20I bowlers – Tabraiz Shamsi, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Rashid Khan, and Adil Rashid – are all wrist-spinners is telling.

The Yorkshireman feels it’s the trend of the past few years that the wrist-spinner have dominated white-ball cricket and have been in demand in franchise leagues.

Adil Rashid, who has been roped in by Punjab Kings for the UAE leg of the IPL 2021 as replacement of Jhye Richardson, highlighted that leg-spinners are able to turn the ball both ways with an almost indecipherable action/wrist position, which makes them difficult to read for the batsman. He reckons having a number of variations helps a spinner.

“It (the trend) may go through patches. The patch now is wrist spin. In months to come, it may be finger spin, or whatever. The reason for that is maybe because the wrist spinners can try to spin the ball both ways. Like the leg-spinner, or the googly or the variations that they have,” Adil Rashid told Times Of India. 

“So as batsmen, they’ve got to think maybe a lot more: which way is it spinning? Is it going left, right, or straight? It’s keeping the batsmen guessing in that way. As a result, the batsman may have to take more risks. But it depends on the day. Anybody can get hit on the day, including leg-spinners. But sometimes, a leg-spinner can come back, if he’s getting hit, with a couple of quick wickets, purely because he is trying to spin the ball hard both ways. Variation in your armoury helps.” 

England have definitely got a good chance in the T20 World Cup: Adil Rashid

Adil Rashid, who was a crucial part of England’s 2019 World Cup-winning team, remains confident that the Three Lions have a squad good enough to go all the way in the T20 World Cup this year, despite the unavailability of the likes of Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer.

“I think we’ve definitely got a good chance, but I always say we never look too far ahead. We don’t look at the World Cup. We take it one game at a time, one step at a time. We’ve got match winners all the way. So, I’m confident that we have got the right squad in place to do what we can do,” the 33-year-old opined.

Eoin Morgan’s are a top contender to win the title as they look to become the first country to hold both the World Cups simultaneously. England are clubbed with Australia, South Africa, West Indies in Group 1 in the Super 12 stage.

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