Remember Paul Adams, the South African spinner, whose bowling action was famously likened to a 'frog in a blender'? The left-arm spinner took the cricket world by storm in the 90s—more with his unique action than with his bowling performances—and it looked like there would be no other like him.
And then came Shivil Kaushik from India, with a similar bowling action. Once again, the cricket world was lost for words as to how a bowler can bowl like that and be still standing on his feet after it was all over! He played for Gujarat Lions in IPL 2016 but faded away as the novelty wore off.
And now, it's the turn of Kevin Koththiigoda to bamboozle the batsmen with his Paul Adam-esque action. Be it Muttiah Muralitharan or Ajantha Mendis, Lasith Malinga or Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Sri Lanka has always had a penchant for producing mystery bowlers, and Koththiigoda is no different.
You haven't seen PAUL ADAMS from South African Cricket Team
— 𝕊ᗩTYᗩᒍIT ᗪEᐯᑕᕼOᗯᗪᕼᑌᖇY (@shonti90) November 16, 2019
My Shoulder still hurts just seeing an Over he bowled.https://t.co/sDESAq0Gr4
Unlike Adams, 21-year-old Koththiigoda is a right-arm leg-break bowler. He made his debut for Bangla Tigers in the Abu Dhabi T10 League on Saturday. While his action was indeed unique, the Deccan Gladiators batsmen did not seem to have much trouble, scoring 22 runs off his two overs without conceding any wicket.
Interestingly, former India left-arm spinner Dilip Doshi expressed his disapproval for T10 cricket, saying anything beyond T20 will have an adverse affect on the sport.
Taking a dig at the T20-driven shorter formats of the game, he said: "The exceptional talent can come only from proper breeding ground. I think more and more T20s and more and more shortened versions is showing that people with incomplete actions, bad actions, sledge-hammering game for 10 balls are winning the Man of the Match and they have suddenly arrived on the scene...," he said.
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Koththiigoda hails from Unawatuna and represented Mahinda College in Galle. He plays for Galle Cricket Club in Sri Lanka’s domestic circuit. So far, he has played 8 first-class games. He has played 5 List A games and 6 T20 games, picking up 14 wickets in all.
Koththiigoda was part of the Sri Lanka U-19 squad in 2017 in the Youth Asia Cup, and made his List A debut in March this year.
