Left-arm spinners to try the <i>doosra</i>?

With Daniel Vettori saying the day when a left-arm spinner will bowl the doosra is not far, S Dinakar, writing in the Hindu, examines the implications of such an innovation.

Murali Kartik, still the finest left-arm spinner in the country [India], revealed he had attempted bowling the doosra — here a left-arm spinner gets the ball to spin into the right-hander — at the nets and managed to pull it off from only 10 yards. “You require hyper-flexible wrist and shoulder to send down this delivery from 22 yards. And I do not believe this is possible without a degree of bending and straightening of the arm.”

A doosra could be a potent weapon against a left-handed batsman who could be forced to hit against the spin. And against a right-hander, the short-leg and the leg-slip could come into play.