Saqlain Mushtaq Doosra: Former Pakistan cricketer Saqlain Mushtaq is regarded as arguably one of the best spinners of his generation. He is also credited with developing the “doosra,” a delivery that breaks the orthodox spin barrier by turning from legside to offside. The norm for a leg spinner is to turn the ball away from right-handed batsmen. But, a doosra turns into the batsman, probably catching him off guard.
The origin of the term “doosra” was explained by Saqlain Mushtaq, who has taken 208 wickets in 49 Test matches and 288 wickets in 169 ODI matches. Nadir Ali credited former Pakistan captain and wicketkeeper Moin Khan for it in a recent podcast on his personal YouTube channel.
Moin Khan is credited with giving the name “doosra” its origin. He was the wicketkeeper Saqlain used to bowl most to. “Saqi, whenever I will ask you, then you must bowl the doosra,” he used to say.
He would speak directly into the commentary box while standing close to the stump mic. The commentators then assumed that the delivery was referred to as the “doosra.”
This name has also been defined in the English dictionary, which is where it can be found. In addition, the 46-year-old revealed that he was playing terrace cricket with his brothers when he showed up bowling the unique delivery.
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Saqlain explains the origin of this delivery
“Imran Khan used to play on a field near my house, and Abdul Khadir played on the opposite field. When I heard about Abdul Khadir’s reputation as a magician and Imran Khan’s in-dipper, I was a very young person. Along these lines, I felt that even I ought to have my very own remarkable activity.
I used to play table tennis with my brothers on the terrace when I first started bowling. On my terrace, I used to practice new spin techniques with the table tennis ball, and one day I noticed a very different turn. The delivery necessitated a completely different hand position and grip.
From that point, I got thought that how I can turn the ball outside. After that, I began practicing with a tennis ball and, later, a cricket ball. While practicing the doosra, I even got some bruises on my fingers,” Saqlain Mustaq continued.
In the world of cricket, Saqlain is well-known for his incredible spin-bowling abilities. He is the fastest bowler to take 250 ODI wickets, and his record has not been broken since. He made “Doosra” one of the best off-spinner weapons after he introduced it.
It was a crucial part of the bowling of many world-class spinners, including Harbhajan Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin who uses it to take out the best batters in the opposition team.
