Move over, Murali. For all those who thought the Sri Lankan spin master
Muttiah Muralitharan was the godfather of the ‘doosra’ delivery, here’s some
news. Former Delhi off-spinner and now level two coach Rajkumar Sharma recently revealed that he can bowl a doosra with a straight arm. Initially unbelieving, the bio-mechanics expert Dr. Rene Ferdinands at the skills coaches’ clinic could not believe his eyes when Rajkumar displayed his enviable skill. “It’s extraordinary. I’ve never seen anything like this in a cricketer. Raj has a very extreme case of wrist hyper mobility which enables him to bowl a doosra with a straight arm, and it also enhances his ability to spin the ball hard in both directions,” Ferdinands said.
Dr. Ferdinands who has himself played first-class cricket in New Zealand as a left-arm wrist spinner puts Rajkumar ahead of
Saqlain Mushtaq and Muttiah Muralitharan as the perpetrators of the doosra. “Rajkumar is probably the first recorded doosra bowler in the history of cricket, and it’s 100 per cent legal,” Dr. Ferdinands said. He added, “Here we’ve got a straight-arm form of Murali who doesn’t need to put strain on the shoulder to bowl the doosra.”
Rajkumar Sharma played professional cricket in Bangladesh in 1992. He is armed with a stock delivery which was a big-turning off-spinner, and he had a straight ball which he bowled out of the back of the hand. But, it was his doosra that was causing all the trouble, and not just for the batsmen. Now at 43, he is a level two coach and is currently attending the specialist skills course for spin bowling at NCA.
Cricket360 wonders what the course of career for this man could have been had his distinctive ability been discovered back in the time when he played.
