How Ajmal does what he does
Shoaib Naveed says all the controversy about Saeed Ajmal's action could be avoided if people realised that his bowling has nothing to do with how much he bends his elbow, but everything to do with how he uses his wrist
Dustin Silgardo
25-Feb-2013
Shoaib Naveed says all the controversy about Saeed Ajmal's action could be avoided if people realised that his bowling has nothing to do with how much he bends his elbow, but everything to do with how he uses his wrist. Naveed writes, in Dawn, that it is a myth that offspinners use their fingers to turn the ball. While most use their forearms, and Muttiah Muralitharan used his shoulder, Ajmal, Naveed says, uses his wrist, reversing the process a legspinner uses.
So, Ajmal, instead of using his wrist to pass on the ball to the fingers, (as Swann, or any conventional ‘offie’ would do) uses his wrist as the major body part imparting the spin. Getting the wrist in position for an off-break takes that extra fraction of a second, which in turn means he has the delayed, jerky action that is so hotly debated. This novel wrist-spinning style is also the reason why Ajmal has been able to stock up his bowling arsenal with a ‘skiddy’ straighter-one, or what he likes to term the teesra.
Dustin Silgardo is a former sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo