Varun Chakravarthy is the hottest property in Indian cricket at the moment. In his short stint in T20 cricket, he has picked up two fifers already. He became the fastest from a full member nation do so. He has played a sole first-class game for Tamil Nadu and made his IPL debut even before debuting for Tamil Nadu in T20 cricket!
A leg-break googly bowler by definition, he has a lot more mystery surrounding him. This begs the discussion on how spin has evolved in T20 cricket, what has changed in these two decades and what the current trend amongst spinners is.
Spin in 2005 to 2015 – Era of Finger Spin
With the introduction of T20 cricket to the international arena, many teams initially struggled to grasp the nuances of this new format. In the first few years, bowling units were still in the process of determining the most effective lines and lengths for T20 matches.
Spinners were significantly underutilized during this period. Teams hesitated to deploy them against aggressive batsmen. This reluctance stemmed from a prevalent belief that spinners, due to their slower delivery pace, were more vulnerable to attack than fast bowlers.
In the table below, you can see the reluctance to use spin in T20 World Cups. In 2007, spinners bowled only 237.2 overs overall and only 4 overs in the Powerplay!
This too, in comparison to 737 and 308.2 by pacers respectively.
The numbers improved in the next two World Cups, indicating the captains trusted their spin a lot more.
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There was an even split with 5 pacers and 5 spinners occupying the positions of top 10 wicket takers in the first generation of T20I cricket.
Dwelling furthermore into the top 10 spinners, barring Shahid Afridi, a wrist-spinner, every one of them is a finger-spinner. With Sunil Narine and Ajantha Mendis, they had the carrom ball, to go with their stock ball, the off-spin. However, in this list, you had classical finger-spinners like Graeme Swann, Nathan McCullum, Daniel Vettori, etc.
Contrary to the widespread belief that finger-spinners were easy targets, the statistics reveal a different story. Finger-spinners in this compilation maintained an economy rate below 7 runs per over. Exceptional performers like Narine and Vettori even managing to keep it under 6.
However, it’s important to note that economy rates weren’t given as much importance during this period. Teams typically achieved a collective strike rate between 110 and 125. This meant that a score of ~160 was considered above par for most matches.
Top Striking Batters Vs Wrist Spin & Finger Spin
The finger-spinners not only effectively curbed the flow of runs but also consistently picked wickets. This success wasn’t simply because they were easier targets, leading batters to carelessly surrender their wickets.
Rather, their effectiveness stemmed from a combination of skill, strategy, and the ability to exploit batsmen’s weaknesses in this relatively new format of the game.
Let’s check out the numbers of top batters (by SR) during this period both against finger-spin as well as wrist-spin.
Against finger-spin, the highest SR for a batter was Glenn Maxwell, who struck at 168.75. A standout SR for that era. However, like most batters in this list, he too was dismissed very frequently by finger spinners.
Now if we shift to the same numbers against wrist spin, the list is headed by Virat Kohli. Well, Virat Kohli leading a list against “spin” is quite surprising right? That’s how good a player he was against spin, back in those times.
He struck at 137.84, getting out only twice. The general norm in this list also indicates that batters had a lesser SR against wrist spin. They also haven’t gotten out a lot of times.
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Batters were out to finger spin 44.2% of the times whereas only 20.7% of the times against wrist spin. There might be a couple of reasons behind these numbers.
In the initial years of the IPL, wrist-spinners such as Shane Warne, Piyush Chawla, and Amit Mishra dominated the wicket-taking charts.
This success likely created a “bad hangover” effect on batsmen, causing them to adopt a cautious approach when facing wrist spin. Batters aimed to safely navigate through the allotted overs of wrist spin.
Similarly, in overseas leagues, wrist-spinners like Shane Warne, Brad Hogg, and Stuart MacGill were consistently taking wickets. However, this trend didn’t translate to the international stage, where batsmen played wrist spin more conservatively. They prioritized wicket preservation over aggressive shot-making.
Hypothesis: Spinners turning it both ways are successful
On pulling out the top 10 spinners from domestic franchise leagues across the globe, except Shakib Al Hasan and Pragyan Ojha, everyone had a variation to spin the ball the other way.
This data gives us a possible hypothesis to work with. Spinners who turn the ball both ways become more potent, especially when batters don’t read them off their hands and try to attack them.
Around 2012-13, significant shifts emerged in domestic T20 leagues worldwide. This period marked the advent of spinners opening the bowling with the new ball and wrist spin flourishing significantly. Samuel Badree for instance, excelled in this role, consistently delivering impressive performances.
Concurrently, IPL talent scouts began unearthing young Indian spinners such as Yuzvendra Chahal, Karn Sharma, etc. This growing emphasis on wrist spin led to an increased demand for wrist spinners. This also fostered the growth of a new generation of wrist spin and also raised the stocks of existing wrist spinners.
Spin in 2015 to 2025 – Era of Wrist Spin
In the second decade of the T20I game, in the top 10 wicket-takers list, there were 6 spinners and 4 pacers, an indication that the game is already moving towards being spin dominated in terms of wicket taking options.
Wrist spin became a clear force to reckon with, picking up wickets regularly and controlling the game. In the top 10 wicket-takers list for spinners, there are seven wrist spinners. This, as opposed to just one in the same list for the previous decade.
Out of the other three, Wanindu Hasaranga is labeled here as a mystery spinner. He too is technically a wrist spinner and two finger-spinners in Mitchell Santner and Shakib Al Hasan.
This list doesn’t include a single right-handed off-spinner. In fact, among the top 20 wicket-takers for spinners, only three are off-spinners, compared to ten in the first decade.
This represents a dramatic decrease in the number of off-spinners. But what has transpired with off-spinners over the last ten years to cause such a significant decline?
One answer might lie in the strike rates of the modern batter vs finger spin.
Top Striking Batters Vs Wrist Spin & Finger Spin
Pulling out numbers of batters against wrist-spinners and finger-spinners like for the earlier generation, the top SR has gone from 165 to a staggering 218 and the batters in this list have been quite destructive against finger-spinners.
Conversely, despite batsmen achieving higher strike rates against wrist spin, these bowlers have managed to claim a substantial number of wickets. This wicket-taking ability has made wrist-spinners particularly valuable in modern day T20 cricket.
We’ve also done a complete video on our analyses, check it out!
The wicket-taking ability of finger spin has dropped down drastically, with the percentage of wickets taken dropping from 44.2% to 33.5%, while for wrist spin it has gone up from 20.7% to 29.3%.
Wrist Spin Supreme!
This data clearly suggests that finger-spinners are not only conceding more runs but are also taking fewer wickets compared to the previous decade.
In contrast, wrist-spinners have become increasingly effective, claiming a higher number of wickets while simultaneously becoming more economical by conceding fewer runs compared to their finger spinning counterparts.
- There are a couple of things that might have brought this shift. The first is the drought of left-handers in world cricket at the moment. With a batting order packed with right-handed batters, teams are hesitant to include a right-handed off-spinner to a right-hander. As it is easy to line up an off-spinner being a right-handed batter.
- The second is that the off-spinners of this generation don’t bowl the doosra, as it is tough to bowl the doosra without bending the elbow. The bowlers who had this in their armory were also reported under suspect action for chucking. Another reason could be that a lot of the young spinners might have taken up wrist spin after watching this paradigm shift by 2012-13 in T20 cricket.
Akash Chopra in his article made some insightful points about spinners of this generation.
The first one is that the wrist-spinners of this generation aren’t your traditional Shane Warnes or Stuart MacGills. They don’t loop the ball in the air, and beat the batters in flight. Rather they are more high-arm in their action and try to bowl as flat and quick as possible, bringing the bowled and LBW modes of dismissals into play. They are more from the ‘Anil Kumble’ school of bowling.
How does this make them potent weapons of today’s game? With a high-arm action and the ball coming in at a good pace, their googlies become more lethal. If they are accurate, they become extremely challenging to score against.
Another important facet from a technical aspect is that they can impart a lot more overspin. With a high-arm action, today’s wrist spinners impart less sidespin and more overspin. Overspin makes the ball move or rotate forward, rather than coming out sideways, creating a phenomenon called ‘dip’.
Simply put, dip creates a tendency for the ball to pitch a bit before it is actually supposed to pitch. For instance, if a ball is to fall around the 4-meter mark, it might just fall at the 4.2-meter mark, a 20 cm meter difference, because of the overspin and dip that is being created.
Indian analyst Himanish Ganjoo has also put out a beautiful article about the impact of dip. Taking data from 2017-2024 IPLs, there is a stark difference in strike rates for various speeds and lengths at which a spinner bowls. The strike rates also improve for bowlers who could extract dip on the spinning ball.
Credits: ESPNCricinfo
Hypothesis Confirmed
Now if we look revisit our hypothesis of spinners turning the ball both ways being more potent, we see that it still holds true.
Pulling out numbers of top spinners in franchise leagues across the globe, except Imad Wasim and Shakib Al Hasan, every other spinner can turn the ball both ways.
The wrist-spinners bowled the googly and Sunil Narine, being a mystery spinner, had the carrom ball. In this list also, there is only a single right-handed off-spinner in Narine.
Overall, our hypothesis that wrist spinners and those who can turn the ball both ways have become the most vital weapons in modern T20 cricket, while traditional off-spinners are gradually fading from prominence.
In this context, Ravichandran Ashwin stands out as an exception. Despite being a conventional off-spinner, he has achieved remarkable success in T20 cricket. This can be largely attributed to how he elevated his game by mastering off spin. This enables him to generate dip and impart drift on the ball. Finger-spinners, who are one dimensional have become easier targets than their wrist-spinning counterparts.
With the T20 format heavily favoring batsmen, being a bowler is like going alone to the graveyard at night, let alone a bowler who can only deliver their stock ball. Therefore, it’s become crucial for bowlers to possess a wide array of variations in their arsenal.
As batsmen are inclined to attack every delivery, they tend to read the ball based on its length rather than the bowler’s hand position. Consequently, these variations can effectively unsettle the batsmen. It’s quite interesting to think that 20 years back these mystery spinners wouldn’t have even been in their state teams, as they don’t follow the coaching manual.
However, with T20 being a game of evolution, planning, and strategy, it has given rise to wrist spin and also mystery spinners who are emerging and thriving.
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