Who was the best player of spin bowling?

MRSN

T20I Star
Joined
Oct 20, 2010
Runs
30,597
Who was the best player of spin bowling ever that you saw

for me its Shoib Malik.:akhtar

let's see what others think?
 
Best inning by Gavaskar's 96 in his last test v/s Pakistan.
Best One on One
Sachin v/s Warne and Lara v/s Murli
 
Were you born ****ing yesterday?

Brian Charles Lara. [/thread]
 
None other than Salim Malik.He was exceptional when it comes to play spin.Shane warn holds the same view.
 
Navjot Singh Sidhu :D.
Block... Block... Six
 
The player I saw who are very good at spin is Salim Malik. He was even asked how you played well against shane warne and he said "I practiced with Abdul Qadir so I can face any spin bowler in the world".

@ M.Nadeem

You start following or watching cricket after 2005?
 
The player I saw who are very good at spin is Salim Malik. He was even asked how you played well against shane warne and he said "I practiced with Abdul Qadir so I can face any spin bowler in the world".

@ M.Nadeem

You start following or watching cricket after 2005?

watching ,before that I was interested only in playing cricket with friends,brothers and relatives in holidays.
 
Last edited:
The three G's: Gooch, Gower and Gatting were all tops for me.
 
Sachin,Laxman Sehwag.

Sehwag just destroys the spinners.
 
Warne n Murali have both put Salim Malik in their top 3 players of spin bowling.....
 
Of the players ive seen these are the best

Miandad, lara, tendulkar, salim malik, sehwag, m Clarke and younis khan
 
Miandad, Lara and Tendulkar. BUT, and please don't hurl abuse at me for saying this, Shahid Afridi aswell for smacking Muruli around the park :)
 
Zaheer Abbas then Slaim Malik, Sunil Gavaskar, Javed Minandad, Laxman
 
Shoaib Malik indeed was very good, but he is Past, right now I think Younis is best player in Pak team.
 
Brian Charles Lara.

One of the finest players of spin in the game. The man was absolutely lethal against any spin bowler that came in front of him. I suppose the best part about his batting against the spinners was his aggressive intent. He wouldn't wait around and defend them - just smash them to bits for even bothering to bowl at him.

Code:
Lara against pace & spin in Tests since Nov 2001
        Runs	Balls Dismissals  Average   Runs per over
Pace	3144	5377	61	   51.54	 3.50
Spin	2276	3510	28	   81.29	 3.89

The stats above illustrate what a dominant presence this man was against the spinners. An obscene average of above 80 is symbolic of what talent this man possessed. Didn't have that shabby of an average against the pacers either from the looks of things. :))
 
Who was the best player of spin bowling ever that you saw

for me its Shoib Malik.:akhtar

let's see what others think?

He was never even best in our team. Younus is a better player of spin.
 
Afridi on his day can make any bowler look ordinary but those days are rare, very rare.
 
salim malik was great. watching javed against spin was like art. he was the main person responsible for these innovative foot movements and little paddles and reverse sweeps and things. In odi's he was the original M.Bevan
 
Miandad hands down.

He is the one who started all these flicks , reverse sweeps and such on spinners.
 
Best inning by Gavaskar's 96 in his last test v/s Pakistan.
Best One on One
Sachin v/s Warne and Lara v/s Murli

what about saleem Malik !
Do you think he is in the same league as Big guys! ( for spin bowlers)

He has fantastic record against warne, and was his nemesis!
 
im surprised no ones mentioned Inzi....he was a great player of spin...miss those straight hits when he came down the track...i was always 99% sure when he came down the track to a spinner it would go into the stands...

Lara of course stands out...I remember once he took Kaneria to the cleaners...
 
Best inning by Gavaskar's 96 in his last test v/s Pakistan.
Best One on One
Sachin v/s Warne and Lara v/s Murli



Yeah, definitely the best ever, he was only out 3-4 times till he was finally given
 
Really surprised no one mentioned M. Azharuddin. One of the if not the best player of spin I've ever seen.
Lara, Siddu & Saleem Malik stand out for me as well.
 
as far as i have seen, inzi was good and younis khan is one of best players of spin. indians are traditionally good players of spin.
 
B.Lara if I have to take one name.
For Pakistan Its S. Malik.

Among current Players :

Jayawardhane.
Younis Khan
VVS Laxman
 
Going back a bit, but Allan Border was an all timer against spin.

Of the Aussies, Lehmann, Damien Martyn and Border are the best I have seen.
 
Another one I would add is VVS Laxman. In his 281, he was flicking Warne from the rough on the leg side when he bowling around the stumps. Lara's knocks in SL, where he pulverized Murali by playing against the spin so effectively. Both masterclasses against great spin.
 
If you consider outside of subcontinent Damien Martin, Darren Lehman, Graham Thorpe, Micheal Clarke are some of the players that spring to mind. And currently I think E.Morgan would do well against spin even though he doesn't have the track record yet.
 
For me without dout JAVED MIADAD. The best Pakistani batsmenn ever. He was always fun to watch and team hated him. He was not only good in bating bat also in talking. :jm

Also Inzi , Yousef and Saeed Anwar ( I rate him higher than both Inzi and Yousef )
 
From those I've seen, it has to be Brian Lara.

The best Pakistani batsman against spin bowling (from those I've seen) is Younus Khan.
 
One of the best I have ever seen was Greg Chappel, whom surprisingly no one mentioned including the Aussie posters!

Zaheer Abbass, when in form...Salim Malik (most innovative and at ease player against spin, ever), Lara, Inzi, YK, Miandad, Sidhu, Gavaskar, Shastri, M. Amarnath, Saeed Anwar, Border

Shoaib Malik was owned by Hauritz...enough said!
 
Ever Classic Hanif Mohammad.. :) ( Saying this after reading some Articles Based on Cricket History )
 
Last edited:
Lara was exceptional against spin.

Laxman too but dont know why he had miserable time against Mendis in 2008.

Apart from them Azhar was also special. Naturally good players of spin bowling. Tendulkar can manhandle any spinner but isnt that naturally crafty against spin like these guys.

lol at people mentioning Michael Clarke's name :yk
 
I'd also say Lara was the best player of spin I've seen, never seemed to be troubled by anyone, even Warne/Murali. Also, unlike a lot of batsmen, he would never let spinners settle and always attacked regardless of the situation or pitch.
 
Probably Lara...except against Ashley Giles :)
 
Slow bowler then. But I seem to remember him foxing Brian a couple of times early on ;)

Disclaimer: I know that Ashley Giles was rubbish really
 
Well that's probably why Giles could make the better players of spin look silly against him from time to time a bit like Paul Harris I guess. Even Inzamam was famous for letting a Giles ball go which he thought would spin massively on a turning track only for it to bowl him off his belly. :inzi

Think Giles did something similar to either Sehwag/Tendulkar in that famous Lord's final.
 
Since 1999 when I became a fan, the best player of spin I have seen in the England team is KP. For every time he was foxed by Warne he hit him for more than a few, and he just did bloody well against Kumble and Murali. I'm sure anyone that saw the 140 against Sri Lanka at Edgbaston and the origins of the 'switch hit' still remembers that as well as me. Overall he averages 41 against right-arm spinners (having played against some of the best ever) and 50 against left-arm spinners (his 'weakness' LOL!). But the older England fans will surely have a more informed opinion about some of our ex-batsmen. Just going on what I have seen.
 
Actually Pietersen's average against la spinners was stuck in the 30s before him mammoth 227 against Australia's own Ashley Giles. He clearly does have a weakness against this type of bowling, as he's admitted himself. I'd say he's probably England's best player of spin though Strauss is quite a good defensive player of slow bowlers.
 
Last edited:
It was something the media thought up to try and explain his generally poor form, and he convinced himself into thinking it was true. I have never seen an analysis that actually explained why he is weak against left-arm spin, people just seem to think he is for unknown reasons. Pietersen is actually a good player of spin in general, just impatient sometimes. It's going to take a lot more than a few mediocre articles to extinguish 6 years' worth of memories of watching him play in all our games.
 
There was analysis done on his batting against Vettori when NZ where in England. I don't think Pietersen was dreadful in that series but the left arm spin did trouble him quite a bit. The commentators talked about how his stance wasn't ideal against the angle and that he needed to open it up a lot more (look at clips from Pietersen Ashes 05 and to the stance he has now and the massive difference is clear). He was basically a completely side on bat during 05 and well into 06.

They also mentioned it [briefly] during the time Bangladesh were in England just recently and I think it was either Atherton or Botham who said that he loses his famous front foot stride against left arm spin and is therefore playing off the back foot too much and being exposed to a quicker arm ball or top spinner for the bowled or lb.
 
Back
Top