Spin Bowling – Rest of the Test Nations
West Indies
Sonny Ramadhin and Alfred Valentine were the spin twins for the West Indies in the 50s. In a pace dominated attack Windies attack of the 70s, it was creditable for West Indian spin great Lance Gibbs to be the first spinner to take 300 test wickets. In the 80s and 90s, spinners dried up in the Carribean with the occasional bright spark in Carl Hooper, Jimmy Adams and Roger Harper who were more suited to the one day format. After a long time, the Windies have the luxury of playing in with some quality spinners like Shane Shillingford, Devendra Bishoo and Sulieman Benn. The Windies have two potent T-20 spinners in Sunil Narine and Samuel Badree, both of whom have a plethora of tricks to deceive the best batsmen.
South Africa
South Africa have always relied on a heavy pace battery but had a few notable spinners in the test arena. The big and burly Pat Symcox was an effective spinner post their readmission into international cricket in 1991. In the 90s, Paul Adams was altogether unique with his unorthodox chinaman action. In the 2000’s all-rounders Nicky Boje, Robin Petersen and Johan Botha were handy spinners in the one day format with Paul Harris being their best spinner in test cricket. In recent times, Imran Tahir a proven performer at the major ICC tournaments has been Proteas ace spinner in the limited overs arena.
New Zealand
Daniel Vettori has been the best spinner to play for New Zealand. Vettori had tremendous control over his flight and bowled an immaculate length to outfox the best in the world. He was one of the most economical bowlers in limited overs cricket. Daniel ended with an impressive 362 test wickets. Some of the other Kiwi spinners who enjoyed success in international cricket have been John Bracewell, Deepak Patel and Jeetan Patel.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh have been served by quality spinners in their cricketing history. In their formative years in test cricket, they had Mohammad Rafique and Naimur Rehman as their lead spinners. In the last decade, off spinner Abdur Razzak and all-rounder Shakib Al Hassan who bowls with a round arm action have been their lead spinners in all the three formats of the game.
Zimbabwe
Paul Strang has been the best spinner to come out of Zimbabwe till date. Strang had many variations like the regular legbreaks, googly, topspinner and flipper to fox the batsmen. In the 90s, Strang formed a good spin attack for the Zimbabweans with fellow spinners like Grant Flower, Andy Whittall and Adam Huckle. With the turn of the century, Raymond Price was their frontline spinner in the test arena. Meanwhile Proper Utseya has developed into a very handy spinner in the limited overs arena.
I hope you all enjoyed reading my article and would generally draw a consensus with the sides that made the cut as the top five international teams on the basis their spin bowling exploits in test cricket.
