From Zampa to Rashid: Googly masters have batters in a spin

Adam Zampa could well be making the same statement now, given that he is doing exactly what Chawla does best – bamboozling the batters with the wrong ones at the ongoing World Cup. After a tough start, the Australia leg-spinner is having quite an impact in the ICC tournament, jumping to the top of the wicket-takers list with 13, including three back-to-back four-wicket hauls (4/47 vs Sri Lanka at Lucknow, 4/53 vs Pakistan at Bengaluru and 4/8 vs Netherlands in Delhi).

Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan is another from the same tribe. In the two stunning upset wins that Afghanistan have managed, against England and Pakistan, Rashid has played his part. He had a spell of 9.3-1-37-3 (ER 3.89) helping bowl out England for 215. Pakistan batters didn’t take a chance against him and he built the pressure with figures of 10-0-41-0 (ER 4.10).

Their remarkable performances have brought the focus on this fascinating art as we see the resurgence of the googly bowler, a guy who lives and breathes the wrong ones. The craft termed as leg-break googly is almost like a sixth style of spin bowling after the Off-spinner, Left-arm spin, Leg-spinner, Chinaman bowler and Mystery bowler.

THE ART

Facing the Zampas and Rashids does present a unique challenge to many batters who have grown up thinking that leg-spinner means the ball will spin away from you. For a leg-spinner, the googly was always a delivery that would surprise you, but for Zampa and Rashid, the stock delivery is googly.

It’s a spin tribe which instead of the orthodox deception of flight, focuses on control, bowling a flatter trajectory and being quick through the air. Being clinical is the key. It’s a skill which has proved to be highly effective in limited overs cricket where the batter is under pressure to score quickly.

ZAMPA’s VALUE

The importance of Zampa to Australia can’t be emphasised enough. When he was not bowling well in the first two games (returning combined figures of 1-123 from 18 overs in the defeats to India and South Africa) their attack lacked teeth in the middle overs. Now, when he has gained some form, they are controlling the middle overs very well.

If the table stands as it is now, with India at No 1 and Australia at No 4, the two will be likely opponents in the semifinal at Mumbai. Zampa will be a different proposition than the bowler the home team faced at Chennai. He believes he has worked out his game and bowling at his best.

“I just figured something out in my head,” the 31-year-old said on the Unplayable Podcast of his 4-53 in Bengaluru against Pakistan. “It was the best I’ve bowled in a while in ODI cricket. The ball came out exactly how I wanted it to,” said Zampa, who was also hindered against India by a glute injury picked up during the bilateral one-day series against India leading into the tournament.

As to how difficult the googly master is to negotiate, can be checked with India’s famed trio of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. Zampa has claimed Kohli’s wicket in ODIs five times, Rohit and Rahul four times each.

He sure will be itching to have another go against Kohli & Co after their opening contest was a proper heartbreak for him. With Australia’s new ball bowlers scything through India’s top-order (2-3), an incisive Zampa spell would have helped them make a game of it even though defending a paltry total of 199. He went wicketless in eight overs after Rahul put him on the backfoot with his late cuts.

Proof of his better rhythm was seen in how he made mincemeat of the Netherlands lower-order with his third straight four-wicket haul.

GOOGLY VARIATION

Earlier, Piyush Chawla was the only one known to be a proper legbreak googly specialist, now with the success Rashid and Zampa have had, more bowlers aping these players and that can can be seen, to a certain extent, in Ravi Bishnoi of India.

All of them bowl a very flatter variation of the googly, unlike the past wizards such as Shane Warne, Mushtaq Ahmed and Abdul Qadir, who used to do it with flight.

The reason that makes their wrong ones difficult to pick is the variations they have of the googly. They come up with the back-of-the-hand version when to spin it more and bowl slower; there’s a quicker finger version. They change the angles of release by using the crease, going wider, close to stumps or from the mid-point. To make it even more challenging, the control over googly is not easy and when the bowler doesn’t get the release right, the ball might just go straight or come out a top-spinner. When the bowler himself doesn’t know which way it is going to spin, how will the batter!