Five unorthodox bowling actions in cricket history

Bowling action and run-ups play a pretty underrated role in cricket as sometimes they do play into a batsman’s mind. At times, having a unique or weird bowling action does help the player to get the better of any batsman. But at the same time, he could end up being predictable if he simply relies on troubling the batter with mere eyesight.

Here are five players with weird bowling actions which the game of cricket has seen:

Lasith Malinga – Sri Lanka

Lasith Malinga is by far the most successful bowler among the ones who have an unorthodox bowling action. The Sri Lankan pacer mastered the art of bowling with a slinging action which in itself caused trouble to batsmen before the well-executed yorker reached their feet. In the initial years, Malinga’s release point would have caused troubles for the batsmen as it would have intersected with the umpire’s standing position.

Sohail Tanvir – Pakistan

Sohail Tanvir had one of the most unique bowling actions but it sure wasn’t eye-pleasing. The left-arm pacer slowly became a T20 specialist as he was quite consistent at varying pace and delivering yorker lengths. Tanvir was also one of the few wrong-footed bowlers as he landed his right-leg while delivering a ball from his left hand.

Paul Adams – South Africa

Paul Adams was probably the hallmark of the most unconventional of bowling actions seen in international cricket. The left-arm spinner used to take a huge bend while delivering the ball. His action was described as ‘blend it like a frog’ by former England cricketer Mike Gatting. Adams had a decent amount of success with this action as he played Tests and ODIs for South Africa.

Shivil Kaushik – Gujarat Lions

Much like Paul Adams, an Indian spin bowler grabbed eyeballs with his unusual bowling action thanks to the IPL. It was none other than Shivil Kaushik who represented Gujarat Lions in the 2017 IPL. Shivil used to have a bend while delivering the ball such that his head would face towards the mid-off/mid-on fielder.

Kedar Jadhav – India

Kedar Jadhav came into the scene as an attacking middle-order batsman but developed his off-spin bowling skills to add value to the Indian team. Kedar’s bowling action was pretty simple at the start but as he began to be a crucial part of the team, he invented a slinging action and also lowered his release point.