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Cricketers who bat with one hand and bowl with the other one?

Ab Fan

Ab Fan

Senior Test Player
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Across the world, there are numerous players who used to bowl with one hand while at the same time used to bat with different one.

While there are some, namely, Saurav Ganguly, Jacob Oram, Suresh Raina, Kagiso Rabada and Moen Ali who used to bat with left hand but bowl with right hand, there are others like Zaheer Khan, Michael Clarke and Grant Flower who used to bat with right hand and bowl with left hand.

Can anyone suggest the reason behind it as there is a good proportion of players with such difference in their game of play? What do you feel could be the reason behind it?
 
Ab Fan said:
Across the world, there are numerous players who used to bowl with one hand while at the same time used to bat with different one.

While there are some, namely, Saurav Ganguly, Jacob Oram, Suresh Raina, Kagiso Rabada and Moen Ali who used to bat with left hand but bowl with right hand, there are others like Zaheer Khan, Michael Clarke and Grant Flower who used to bat with right hand and bowl with left hand.

Can anyone suggest the reason behind it as there is a good proportion of players with such difference in their game of play? What do you feel could be the reason behind it?
Click to expand...

Faheem Ashraf as well (left handed bat, right handed bowler)

Many of our left-arm bowlers like Wahab & Junaid bat right handed too. I think the reason for that is that they took up left arm bowling because of Wasim, but they bat with their dominant hand.
 
Ahson8 said:
Faheem Ashraf as well (left handed bat, right handed bowler)

Many of our left-arm bowlers like Wahab & Junaid bat right handed too. I think the reason for that is that they took up left arm bowling because of Wasim, but they bat with their dominant hand.
Click to expand...

The question is, could they have been better bowlers if they were right handed (natural hand)?
 
Ahson8 said:
Faheem Ashraf as well (left handed bat, right handed bowler)

Many of our left-arm bowlers like Wahab & Junaid bat right handed too. I think the reason for that is that they took up left arm bowling because of Wasim, but they bat with their dominant hand.
Click to expand...

Now, tbh, that is an absurd logic. And it is not the case one-sided only. It goes the other way round too.
 
troodon said:
The question is, could they have been better bowlers if they were right handed (natural hand)?
Click to expand...

This is the point. I am right-handed. Isnt it a simple thing for me to understand that I have to work far more hard to bowl with left rather than right?
 
Ahson8 said:
Faheem Ashraf as well (left handed bat, right handed bowler)

Many of our left-arm bowlers like Wahab & Junaid bat right handed too. I think the reason for that is that they took up left arm bowling because of Wasim, but they bat with their dominant hand.
Click to expand...

And what about Faheem Ashraf? Did he got inspired by Wasim's batting?
 
Many great sportsperson are ambidextrous.. Being ambidextrous helps maintain balance. Sachin bowled and batted with right hand but wrote in left hand.. He also could bat competently left handed and throw from boundary line with his left hand. Same with Gavaskar, Once Gavaskar batted left handed in one of the Ranji matches to counter a left arm spinner pitching on his leg stump
 
Ab Fan said:
Now, tbh, that is an absurd logic. And it is not the case one-sided only. It goes the other way round too.
Click to expand...

Yeah it goes the other way round, but I'm 100% sure a lot of our left-arm bowlers took it up because they were inspired by Wasim.

Similarly we have cases of Darren Bravo & Kusal Perera who are actually right handed but took up left handed batting because they were inspired by Lara & Jayasuriya respectively
 
When you bat right handed, the top hand is your left hand. It is the hand that controls where your shots go. Your right hand (the bottom handed) is where the power comes from. The advantage of having the bottom hand as being the dominant hand is obviously you can put more power into your shots.

There is an advantage to placing your dominant hand on top because you're in control of where the shots and you can guide where the ball goes. The other advantage you have is that you lead with your dominant leg an your dominant eye is the front eye.

When you're younger you follow someone else's stance but you also do what comes naturally and stick with it. For a lot of people the reverse stance is more comfortable and that's how they grow up.

Almost everyone (Tendulkar being the exception) bowls with their dominant hand. So the suggestion that Junaid or Wahab are right-handed individuals bowling left-arm is not something I believe.
 
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Ahson8 said:
Faheem Ashraf as well (left handed bat, right handed bowler)

Many of our left-arm bowlers like Wahab & Junaid bat right handed too. I think the reason for that is that they took up left arm bowling because of Wasim, but they bat with their dominant hand.
Click to expand...

Their dominant hand is left with which they throw the ball. All the players mentioned in OP bowled with their dominant hand.
 
ManFan said:
Wasim is not known for his batting. Despite having a higher FC score than some ATG's.
Click to expand...

This is why I am looking for a valid reason behind this? Also, it is the case both ways-left hand bat+ right hand bowl as well as left hand bowl+ right hand bat.

There are a good proportion of cricketers behind it and from all over the world as you can see with the examples I have mentioned.
 
I also find it puzzling. I actually used to force my younger brother to bat left handed as he is a lefty(bowls and throws with left) but he used to switch back to Right hand as it was more comfortable for him. Inzi is another example.
 
Michael Clarke, Grant Flower, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan.
 
It's whatever comes naturally. I have always batted left handed, and bowled right handed. And, I've been pretty good at it :p. When batting left handed, your right hand is at the top of the bat handle, so the right hand still is playing a major role.
 
Ben stokes,moeen ali,Suresh raina,aron finch,trent boult,rabada,pehlukwayo,dumini,munro.
 
I highly doubt that there's many who bowl with their weaker hand.

Batting is another thing as there's many batsman who are right handed, who bat left-handed and vice versa. That's not so unreasonable because it depends on the top and bottom hand, some prefer it one way and some prefer it the other way. Either way, the strong hand is involved. But bowling is not the same. Guys like Wahab, Junaid, Irfan who bat right-handed are still left-handed, you can see that they throw with their left hand etc.

The terminology used for batsmen is not correct basically, right handed does not mean they have a dominant right hand. On the other hand, a right-handed bowler almost certainly has a dominant right hand, and vice versa.
 
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R. J. Shastri, left arm bowler - right hand bat.

Sir Richard Hadlee. Right arm bowler, left arm bat.
 
Finch, Warner, Kobe, Raina, Moeen, Stokes, Anderson, Neesham, Thisara
 
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shokz1408 said:
It's whatever comes naturally. I have always batted left handed, and bowled right handed. And, I've been pretty good at it :p. When batting left handed, your right hand is at the top of the bat handle, so the right hand still is playing a major role.
Click to expand...

Allright. I am assumimg your dominant hand is right hand.

Hence one question I want to raise- Do you think if you batted right-handed, you would have been a better batsmen than what you are or if not better, atleast equal to what you are?
 
Ab Fan said:
Allright. I am assumimg your dominant hand is right hand.

Hence one question I want to raise- Do you think if you batted right-handed, you would have been a better batsmen than what you are or if not better, atleast equal to what you are?
Click to expand...

Yeah my dominant hand is my right hand.

Nope I would not have been as good as batsmen as I am now if I was right handed, and definitely not better. I have power, control and confidence playing left handed, and I don't have that if I switch.
 
shokz1408 said:
Yeah my dominant hand is my right hand.

Nope I would not have been as good as batsmen as I am now if I was right handed, and definitely not better. I have power, control and confidence playing left handed, and I don't have that if I switch.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Which basically means that it comes naturally to any person and it can be assumed that the same would have been case with these cricketers from all-round the world and obviously as you said if they would have chose to play(bat or bowl whichever comes naturally) with their dominant hand they wouldnt have done it better than what they are at now.
 
I'm not sure if this is true but I heard an interview of Ganguly where he said...he had always been right handed but started batting as a lefty because he shared his brother's equipment who was left handed. Any one know if this is true?
 
Inzamam-ul-Haq, If I remember correctly he bowled with his left hand and was a very poor bowler. I remember watching him bowl an over sometime in the 90's which lasted a long time. The funny thing is he has a ODI wicket as well.
 
Among proper all-rounders, the greatest one has to be Sir Richard Hadlee.

There are several players who batted & bowled with different hands (Batting is 2 hands job, but normally we consider bottom hand as the main hand), but hardly any of them were significantly good in both.

Among such ambidextrous players, after Sir RJH, randomly I can recall RJ Shastri, C Gayle, Clive Lloyd (he was quite decent right arm medium pacer), Wasim Raja (He was Right Arm leggi), Faulkner, Greg Methews, Johnson (ZIM), A Giles, Wilfred Rhodes, Frank Worrell, BC Broad, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Lance Kluesner comes to mind.

Finally, there are several cricketers, who were significantly strong in one suit while hardly any contribution with others. I can recall BC Lara, Ul Haq, Sanga, Gower, Ganguly, Ambrose, Anderson, Boult, Josh Hazzlewood, Bishen Singh Bedi, Dudley Underwood, Stefan Fleming, Damien Fleming, A Cook, Shiva, G Smith, MJ Clarke, M Hayden, Langer, Kirsten, Mike Hussey, Warner, Treskothick, DC Compton, Gilchrist, Andy Flower, Gambhir, Tamim, Larry Gomes, Arjuna, Ijaz, Butt, Fahim, Talat, Mominul ... comes to mind, and I am missing MANY.

One technical note is, over 90% people are born with natural right-hand. But, cricket is a top hand game, therefore there are several batsmen who actually used their strong hand as the top hand (like Lara, Gower, Sanga, Ul Haq); but one has to bowl with stronger hand. For that, we see lot, lot more left-handed batsman than left-arm bowlers, though in recent times in PAK we see a different trend.

In this category, we'll see most number is strong lefti batsmen but poor right arm bowler; followed by strong left arm blower, but weak right-hand batsman. Ul Haq & Ijaz are very rare who being left-handed opted to bat right hand and Ijaz was probably the only player who used lefy arm to bowl, but batted right handed and he was predominantly a bottom hand (right hand) batsman, whose right arm was naturally week.

Also, I believe Tendulkar writes and plays tennis with left hand, but his cricket is full with right hand - even never recall him throwing with left hand; while Lara & Sobers (?) were left handed & right handed golfer respectively, but bowled with other arm. Someone should check - Wasim plays golf right handed, but not sure.

This PAK kid some Jan is unique of all - can bowl legal balls with both arm; but I think he needs to do a bit better to come in this list - that's play for PAK at least for one International.
 
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Hussain Talat, Wavell Hinds, Jimmy Neesham, Jesse Ryder, Matthew Wade & Mohammad Irfan are just some of the players I can remember.
 
Broad.

David Gower did everything right-handed except bat.
 
All cricketers bowl with one hand. I have never seen a batsman bat with one hand though.
 
my name would be here if i were a cricketer. Bowl left arm fast and bat right handed
 
Ab Fan said:
Across the world, there are numerous players who used to bowl with one hand while at the same time used to bat with different one.

While there are some, namely, Saurav Ganguly, Jacob Oram, Suresh Raina, Kagiso Rabada and Moen Ali who used to bat with left hand but bowl with right hand, there are others like Zaheer Khan, Michael Clarke and Grant Flower who used to bat with right hand and bowl with left hand.

Can anyone suggest the reason behind it as there is a good proportion of players with such difference in their game of play? What do you feel could be the reason behind it?
Click to expand...

I can think of Wahab Ross and Junaid Khan on the Pakistan team - sure there are more!
 
Last Monetarist said:
I have:

Click to expand...

And then, he hunted Poms for 26-9-53-7 - one of the best ever displays of skillful, fast bowling. And, it wasn't a quick burst like 10-12 overs rush; it was a Chinese water torture, he bowled 26 overs out of 33 for one end (Poms lasted 65 overs).

You can't ever find a better Test cricketer than Malcom Marshall - will be ever present in my all-time XI.
 
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