When players start their journey in the academies, coaches teach them the dos and donts of bowling. This also includes bowling actions. Most bowlers – either pacers or spinners, bowl with high-arm action. This helps them sustain longer in the game and is also less risky in terms of chances of injuries. However, there are some bowlers who have extremely unusual actions.
They caught the eye of the fans quickly but some of them faded after a while. On the other hand, some made decent careers. These bowling actions are fraught with risks as they might injure players. In the listicle, we will discuss three players with unusual bowling actions.
Three bowlers with unusual bowling actions
The former Sri Lanka T20I skipper was known as slinga-Malinga. His bowling action troubled the batters with action. Even the umpires have gone on record saying that Lasith’s release was in front of their face.
Meanwhile, he was one of the prolific white-ball bowlers. He played 226 ODIs, 84 T20Is, and 295 T20 games across the globe in leagues. On the other hand, he could play only 30 Tests in his six-year career. In 2011, he retired from the format citing workload management.
The former Pakistan international was one of the rare players who had wrong-footed action. Initially, he was shining for Rawalpindi in Red Ball as he took around 300 wickets under the age of 25. Also, he had five centuries till that age.
However, as his career progressed, he started doing well in white-ball formats and First Class cricket was put to the back burner. Even though he didn’t play enough for his national side, the left-arm pacer played for a few teams in the T20 League around the globe. Not to forget, he is the only Pakistani to win the Purple cap in the Indian T20 League.
3. Kedar Jadhav
The former India player started playing for India as a middle-order attacking batter. After a while, the team management started to use him as a sixth bowling option. When he started bowling, he was bowling with a sling action but as a slow bowler.
Batters failed to hit him for boundaries as he didn’t get enough bounce due to his action. Also, the ball used to arrive slowly from Jadhav’s arm.