Cricket World Cup, 2019: 5 Wrist Spinners who could be the X-Factor for their team
In the 2017 Champions Trophy, almost every team went in with wrist spinners in their squad. India was one of the teams who were relying on the traditional finger spin of Ashwin and Jadeja in Champions Trophy 2017. The duo were unable to contain the opposition and take wickets. Their dismal performance was the reason behind India losing the finals of the Champions Trophy 2017.
In the next series, India replaced their finger spinners by two young wrist spinners in Kuldeep and Chahal and reaped instant rewards. They are making life difficult for the batters around the world by taking wickets in the middle overs for fun. Such is the dominance of the wrist spinners currently in world cricket.
Interestingly, the Top 5 bowlers in the ICC T20I Rankings are all wrist spinners. Suddenly wrist spinners are coming from teams who weren’t famous for wrist spin. Almost every team has started preferring wrist spinners over the traditional finger spinners in the limited overs format. The simple reason being the variation possessed by the wrist spinners. They can spin the ball both ways and can trouble both types of batsmen. With the pitches being flat and finger spinners not getting much turn, wrist spinners are certainly the way forward. On this note, let’s have a look at 5 such wrist spinners who could be the game changer for their respective team in the 2019 World Cup.
5. Shadab Khan
Shadab Khan from Pakistan has been their wrist spinner for quite a while now. He was part of the Pakistan team which won the Champions Trophy in 2017. He made his debut for Pakistan in T20 format against the West Indies team. He had a dream debut as he picked by 3 wickets in his 4 overs for just 7 runs at an economy rate of 1.75! He won the man of the match on his debut. He won 3 such awards in his first 10 T20I games! He is equally effective in the ODI format as well. He has picked up 28 wickets in 18 games at an economy rate of just 4.85! He foxes the batsmen with his googly as most of the batsmen fail to read him. He can be effective on the flat wickets in England and hence is slotted in at No.5 on this list.