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Best players of spin bowling in test matches you have seen live

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
My list will be:

1. Brian Lara
2. Javed Miandad
3. Sachin Tendulkar
4. Mohammad Azharuddin
5. Navjot Singh Sidhu
6. Saurav Ganguly
7. Mahela Jayawardena
8. Kumar Sangakkara
9. Virender Sehwag
10. Saeed Anwar
11. Mohammad Yousuf
12. Steve Waugh
13. Jacques Kallis
14. Andy Flower
15. Hashim Amla
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Sanga has never struck me as a particularly brilliant player of spin compared to pace...
 

Teja.

Global Moderator
Azhar was ****ing amazing against spin. Probably the best I've seen from a talent perspective. Lara was amazing too. Though he has lost the 'toying with it' effect of the past, Tendulkar's an awesome accumulator against spin bowling, has a tendency to get out against part-timers and newbies though. Kallis pretty underrated against spin throughout his career. His display in the third test in SA, 2010 was immense, particularly in the second Innings with a broken back, score at 80-5 and the pitch made for Harbhajan.

Sehwag on another level though. Would back him over even Lara on a spinning track against quality spin bowling. His 201* in Galle is a prime example of why the "batsman don't win matches' crew should GAGF. Absolute masterpiece. ATG knock for sure.
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
Sanga has never struck me as a particularly brilliant player of spin compared to pace...
He might not be as attacking against spin as say Sehwag, but technically he's just brilliant against spin. He's equally comfortable attacking, milking and defending spin; which is the sign of a master.

I've seen all his test matches against India live. And there are very few batsmen who handled both Kumble and Harbhajan as comfortably as him.
 

vcs

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Damien Martyn's 2nd innings knock in Chennai '04 is one of the best innings I've seen against a quality spin attack. Ponting was very good last year in Bangalore as well.
 
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Top_Cat

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Sidhu was such a a weird player. Would eat up 128375623 balls getting to 50 then land several zacks in the next postcode and go to 150 off the next 40. Not to mention he was far better against spin than pace so it's interesting that he opened the batting.
 

Noble One

International Vice-Captain
Sidhu was one of those great batting oddities of the 80’s and 90’s. His entire career was forged on being a supremo against spin, and I do recall some fantastic innings against Warne and Muralitharan. It would be great if someone could shed some light on how he ended up as an opener, because he was very average against quality seamers.
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
Sehwag on another level though. Would back him over even Lara on a spinning track against quality spin bowling. His 201* in Galle is a prime example of why the "batsman don't win matches' crew should GAGF. Absolute masterpiece. ATG knock for sure.
I'm not denying the ATG status of that Galle knock, it was a freaking awesome knock for sure.

But to me he never looked very comfortable against an in-form Muralitharan, he looked suspicious against his doosra when Murali was at his best. He dominated the waning master for sure. But remember Muralitharan didn't keep Sehwag in his list of 10 best batsmen he bowled to.

There is a different point about Sehwag that I want to point out here. His natural style of play is way too aggressive than all other batsmen I've seen, which is good. And that's the reason when he gets going, it might seem like he's the maestro at work. Take this in contrast to the likes of Miandad, Azhar, Mahela or Sanga - who are technically brilliant against spin. These are kinds of players who are equally comfortable while defending, manouvering and attacking spin. Comparing spin-play of Sehwag against these players is like comparing pace-play of Ponting against, say, Sunil Gavaskar. Due to the natural aggressive style of play, Ponting is definitely a more dominating player of pace than Sunny, but does that make him a better player of pace than Sunny?

On the other hand, I can never forget the way Lara dominated both Warne and Muralitharan at their respective primes. I don't think anyone else came even close to achieving that. Even Tendulkar, who dominated Warne probably more than Lara throughout was merely good against Murali and a little suspect against Saqlain. Not only Warne and Muralitharan are the two best spinners of this generation by far, their bowling style is so very different from each other that dominating both of them 'in their respective primes' puts Lara on a different plane than anyone else for my money.
 

Bun

Banned
Sidhu was such a a weird player. Would eat up 128375623 balls getting to 50 then land several zacks in the next postcode and go to 150 off the next 40. Not to mention he was far better against spin than pace so it's interesting that he opened the batting.
haha block block thwack block block thwack.

remember his 491 ball double 201 in WI, 19 boundaries and a six in it! :laugh:
 

Xuhaib

International Coach
Younis Khan deserves a mention never looked getting out to Kumble or Murali shame he never faced Warne when he had established himself.
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
Younis Khan deserves a mention never looked getting out to Kumble or Murali shame he never faced Warne when he had established himself.
Yeah, both Younis Khan and Saleem Malik (and Inzamam too) were particularly good against spin. But I personally place MoYo a shade higher than the 3 of them. Mohammad Yousuf reminded me of Javed Miandad in his style of batting against spin. Those cuts and glides were the signs of a master.
 

vcs

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I'm not denying the ATG status of that Galle knock, it was a freaking awesome knock for sure.

But to me he never looked very comfortable against an in-form Muralitharan, he looked suspicious against his doosra when Murali was at his best. He dominated the waning master for sure. But remember Muralitharan didn't keep Sehwag in his list of 10 best batsmen he bowled to.

There is a different point about Sehwag that I want to point out here. His natural style of play is way too aggressive than all other batsmen I've seen, which is good. And that's the reason when he gets going, it might seem like he's the maestro at work. Take this in contrast to the likes of Miandad, Azhar, Mahela or Sanga - who are technically brilliant against spin. These are kinds of players who are equally comfortable while defending, manouvering and attacking spin. Comparing spin-play of Sehwag against these players is like comparing pace-play of Ponting against, say, Sunil Gavaskar. Due to the natural aggressive style of play, Ponting is definitely a more dominating player of pace than Sunny, but does that make him a better player of pace than Sunny?

On the other hand, I can never forget the way Lara dominated both Warne and Muralitharan at their respective primes. I don't think anyone else came even close to achieving that. Even Tendulkar, who dominated Warne probably more than Lara throughout was merely good against Murali and a little suspect against Saqlain. Not only Warne and Muralitharan are the two best spinners of this generation by far, their bowling style is so very different from each other that dominating both of them 'in their respective primes' puts Lara on a different plane than anyone else for my money.
Sadly there weren't enough contests between Tendulkar and Murali in their respective primes.. even in ODIs which there have been plenty of between India and SL in recent years. Tendulkar and Warne faced off much more often.

Good point about Sehwag's attacking style. You could say the same about Pietersen to an extent. I wouldn't call him a great player of spin even though he has played some dominating knocks against Warne and Murali because he seems to lack various gears like the other batsmen you've mentioned (and the weakness to left-armers).
 

Xuhaib

International Coach
among the batting greats of Pakistan I think Mo Yo was the weakest against spin sure on his best day he even made Warne look like Salisbury but he was regularly outdone by Murali,Warne and Kumble.
 

vcs

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Also, Laxman should definitely be in that list. A master at manipulating spin on tricky pitches.
 

weldone

Hall of Fame Member
Also, Laxman should definitely be in that list. A master at manipulating spin on tricky pitches.
Among Indian batsmen, Dravid, Gambhir and Laxman have been very good against spin (even if we exclude Raina and Kambli since they haven't played too many tests). But all of them are a few shades below Sachin, Azhar, Sidhu, Ganguly and Sehwag for my money. Gambhir, though, has a good chance of featuring in my list in future.
 

subshakerz

International Coach
Personally, I rank scoring against Kumble in India equally hard than against Murali and Warne. Anwar was one of the few I recall scoring against all three in their prime.
 

Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
Damien Martyn's 2nd innings knock in Chennai '04 is one of the best innings I've seen against a quality spin attack
Probably the best knock I've ever seen from an Australian in the sub-continent. I know Hayden has played some gems, but that Chennai knock by Marto was truly immense.
 

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