by Richard Pybus
(Question from Joel, Australia)
Shane Warne: The Master At Work
Hi Coach, what are the variations a leg spinner needs to have? Is practicing with a tennis ball advisable?
Hi Joel, firstly the question regarding variations, you will see on the bowling tips pages how frequently I talk about the power of the stock ball.
If you can’t land your stock ball consistently then you don’t have any need for a variation because every ball is a variation ! You need to be able to bowl a leg spinner accurately, with flight and with plenty of spin on it, to then have a delivery that you build a variation around.
So your first goal is to be able to develop a great stock ball !
After this, having a googly and top spinner will give you a decent arsenal, you need to master these before wanting to add flippers, sliders and zooters !
See these posts to work on your … Spin Bowling – Controlling Line and Length and …Spin Bowling – Flight and Variation … with help here on spinning the ball hard and taking wickets … Spin Bowling – Taking Wickets.
Work on landing your stock ball consistently, then work on subtly using the crease, you have three basic release positions, close to the stumps, mid crease and wide.
Your basic game plan is to build pressure in your spell, start with sweepers out whilst you settle in, so your bad ball goes for one rather than four.
Then when you have built pressure, you bring the sweepers up into the ring to hold inner ring pressure.
The structure of your over is to bowl four dot balls and then set up for a 5th ball dismissal, then if you don’t get a wicket then close the over down on the 6th ball to hand pressure to the bowler at the other end to take over.
A couple of subtle strategies which Shane Warne was a master of, build up pressure bowling maidens or low scoring overs.
Then as the pressure builds, bowl an over with the first 4 balls released from close to the stumps and then on the 5th ball bowl your googly from wider in the crease, fullish for the batter to drive, this opens the gate for the ball that spins back for the bowled or lbw dismissal.
Or drag the batter across the crease by bowling wider of off stump from mid crease.
Set up the batter for a quicker top spinner for the LBW, you drag the batter’s head across the crease and the front pad gets planted over to the off side, same plan as above.
Build it on pressure, tempting the batter and then come to bowl your top spinner from wicket to wicket.
There is nothing wrong with playing with balls to experiment with variations, legends from Saqlain to Bousanquet have done this, but to develop feel, rather do it with a cricket ball.
You want to learn the weight, spin and trajectories to work with, it will also strengthen your fingers and hand to allow you to spin the ball harder.
Best Wishes Coach
About Richard Pybus
I'm Richard Pybus, I've coached Pakistan, Bangladesh, Middlesex, Titans and the Cape Cobras in South Africa and the goal of this site is to help you to play winning cricket.