Daily Times

Spin wizards Muttiah Muralitharan and Harbhajan Sindh on Tuesday said they learned the ‘dosra‘ from Pakistan‘s maestro Saqlain Mushtaq.

A dosra, invented by Mushtaq, is a disguise leg-break bowled by an off-spinner, which rather than spinning towards the bat, goes the other way.

During India Today’s program titled Salam Cricket, spin legends Abdul Qadir, Harbhajan Singh and Muralitharan spoke to the audience about the tips and tricks of the spin world.

On his turn to speak, the Sri Lankan wizard revealed how he learned the dosra from Saqlain. “It was 1995, and we were touring Pakistan. There, I saw Saqlain bowl the dosra and I could not imagine how he was bowling that. So I went to him and asked and he told me he was using a different grip to bowl it. I tried to do the same but only succeeded in successful implement 4 years after in 1998,” Murali said to the applause of those in attendance.

Harbhajan shared similar sentiments. “I learned dosra from the great Saqlain Mushtaq, a dear friend of mine. I saw him during the matches and how he was getting so many wickets through that delivery and I was like ‘wow’, this is fascinating. Salute to that master of dosra and wherever he is, may God bless him,” ‘Bhaji’ said.

Saqlain’s career spanned over 8 years, from 1995 to 2003, in which he 208 Test wickets in 49 games, while a majority portion of his success came in the ODIs in which he took 288 wickets in 169 games.