It might seem unreal that India never had a male left-arm wrist spinner in its 85-year-old Test cricket history. When Kuldeep Yadav, 22, made his debut in the fourth Test against Australia at Dharamsala, he became the country's first male 'chinaman' Test cricketer. Indian woman cricketer Preeti Dimri and Shivil Kaushik, who caught everybody's attention with his Paul Adams-like action in the Indian Premier League, are the other prominent left-arm wrist spinners in the country now.
What is chinaman bowling?
Imagine Australian legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne (or any other leg-spinner, for that matter) bowling his leg-spins with the left arm. That's what 'chinaman' bowling is—left-arm leg spin. While a left-arm off-spinner (like Ravindra Jadeja) takes the ball away from the right-handed batsman, a left-arm leg-spinner spins the ball into him. His googly, however, will turn away from the right-handed batsman. Why are there so few left-arm leg-spinners? Probably because it is difficult to control (leg-spin is any day tougher than off-spin). Because there are not many left-arm leg-spinners around, it makes it all the more difficult for the batsmen to pick up their variations when they face one.
Paul Adams
Why the phrase 'chinaman'?
In 1933, England and West Indies were playing a Test match at Old Trafford. In reply to WI's first innings score of 375, England were going steady at 374-6 when left-arm orthodox spinner Ellis Achong produced an unexpected delivery that spun into Walter Robbins—who was batting on 55—and he was stumped. Achong was the first Test cricketer of Chinese origin, and, while returning to the pavilion, a perplexed Robbins, reportedly, remarked, “Fancy being done by a bloody Chinaman!” England were all out without adding to the score, and the match was drawn eventually. But the phrase 'chinaman' stuck and became synonymous with left-arm leg-spinners.
Other china'men'
Probably, the most famous chinaman would be South African Adams. It was his “frog in a blender” action that bamboozled the world more than his wicket-taking abilities. His compatriot Tabraiz Shamsi, 27, has now taken up the mantle of the chinaman bowler for the national team. The other notable china'men' include West Indians (The legend) Sir Gary Sobers, Dave Mohammed, Inshan Ali and Bernard Julien; Australians Bradd Hogg, Michael Bevan, Simon Katich and Lindsay Kline; and Englishmen Dennis Compton, Chuck Fleetwood-Smith and Johnny Wardle. Sri Lanka's Lakshan Sandakan, too, is part of the rare breed.
