5 cricketers who were equally comfortable bowling pace and spin
The Indian-origin Australian fast bowler Gurinder Sandhu recently made news bowling spin in an unofficial Test match against India A where he even picked four wickets. Fast bowlers resorting to bowling spin because of unhelpful fast bowling conditions has quite a few examples in cricketing history.One such example that vividly stands out in the Indian collective memory is a flustered Manoj Prabhakar bowling spin after having been hit to all parts of the ground by Sanath Jayasuriya in the 1996 World Cup.Yet there were a few cricketers for whom versatility was a natural thing and they could effortlessly make the transition from spin to seam or vice versa. Let us look at five such great cricketers who were equally comfortable bowling seam and spin.
#5 Sohail Tanvir
One of the finest fast bowlers who swung the ball, Sohail Tanvir was also difficult to play because of his unorthodox, wrong-footed bowling action. Also a hard-hitting batsman who came in lower down the order, it was sad to see Tanvir's career cut short due to a plethora of injuries.
A promising new ball bowler, the entire cricketing world was surprised to see Tanvir resort to bowling spin against India at a Test match in the Eden Gardens in 2007.
It is actually a little known fact that Tanvir was immensely comfortable bowling left-arm orthodox spin as was evident in the few overs he bowled in that match. Seeing that conditions did not favour the faster bowlers in that match, Tanvir had no reluctance to bowl spin and try something new.