Is it Time to Stop Being Afraid of Bowling Around the Wicket? | Cricket coaching, fitness and tips

Is it Time to Stop Being Afraid of Bowling Around the Wicket?

Menno Gazendam is author of Spin Bowling Project. Get your free 8 week spin bowling course here

The last few decades spin bowlers - especially off-spinners - have been trained to bowl over the wicket. They are very rarely were told to go around the wicket.

And I do not understand it.

Bowling round the wicket used to be the standard method for off-spinners. It's a good tactic and it is something that spinners need to start picking up again at a young age.

Yes, an off spinner will get a little less turn due to the angle, but you do not need massive turn the beat the batsman. Just a little straightening of the delivery and you got your man LBW.

Spin bowling is about giving it a rip, but it's also way more than just giving it a rip: It is bowling clever and playing with angles.

So, come around the wicket

Bowl to draw your man forward and then have it straighten to beat the bat. Cramp up the batsman a bit. Make him want to swing with the line to leg side.

Or for the left handed batsman to bowl him around his legs.

You can either come through and around (between the wickets and the ump) or just around the wicket. It does not matter.

But get going with bowling a few different angles.

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Comments

As a left arm chinaman I very rarely go over the wickets. This is because I'm able to drift the ball from around the wickets, which is a very deadly angle. When I go over the wickets the ball still drifts a lot, but it isn't as effective because it constantly moves in one direction. When I go around it angles in, straightens through the air, moves a bit further away, and then even further away. Over the wickets is still a nice alternative, some batsmen can't face it at all. But it isn't something I'd do all the time. Mostly it's only to change the angle from very wide around the wickets to wide from over the wickets. A right arm finger spinner would have more success using this angle. Saeed Ajmal, Mohhamad Hafeez, JP Duminy, and some others are all examples of off spinners that use this angle effectively.