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1
Jim Laker
Born
Laker's 19 wickets for 90 against Australia at Old Trafford in 1956 remain the best match figures in first-class cricket, let alone Tests. The pitch helped, but Tony Lock, a fine spinner at the other end, took one wicket on it. Laker's accuracy and drift with off-spin, and his patience to keep the ball on a length, are what turned helpful conditions into a record.
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Derek Underwood
Born
Deadly Derek bowled left-arm spin at almost medium pace, which on rain-affected uncovered pitches was nearly unplayable. At the Oval in 1968, after a storm and volunteers mopping the outfield, he took the last Australian wicket with minutes to spare to level the series. He was more than a wet-wicket bowler: 297 Test wickets at a miserly economy rate show the control.
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Bishan Singh Bedi
Born
Bedi's left-arm spin was the most classical of the great Indian quartet: a smooth, unhurried action, loop and subtle variations in flight that drew batters out of their crease. He played county cricket for Northamptonshire and was a master of deceiving good players on true English and Australian pitches, not only at home. Watch his flight; it is the textbook.
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B. S. Chandrasekhar
Born
Chandrasekhar bowled leg-spin and googlies at near medium pace with an arm withered by childhood polio, which gave him unusual bounce and speed off the pitch. His 6 for 38 at the Oval in 1971 bowled England out and gave India their first Test win in England. He was erratic on some days and unplayable on others, and the unplayable days won series.
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Abdul Qadir (cricketer)
Born
Qadir kept leg-spin alive in the 1980s, when fast bowling dominated, with a bouncing, theatrical run-up and a full set of variations: leg-break, googly, top-spinner and flipper. His 9 for 56 against England at Lahore in 1987 is the spell to find. Shane Warne later said Qadir's example had shown him what a wrist-spinner could be.
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Shane Warne
Born
Warne's first ball in England, the 1993 delivery that drifted, dipped and spun past Mike Gatting to hit off stump, revived leg-spin overnight. He took 708 Test wickets with accuracy unusual for a wrist-spinner, plus the flipper, drift and constant mind games. His 40 wickets in the 2005 Ashes, in a losing side and often on unhelpful pitches, show the craft at its peak.
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Muttiah Muralitharan
Born
Muralitharan took 800 Test wickets, the record, with an off-spinner's wrist that produced huge turn and a doosra that went the other way. His 16 wickets at the Oval in 1998, on a flat pitch where England made 445, won the Test almost single-handedly. His action was investigated and cleared after laboratory testing, a controversy that is part of his story.
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Anil Kumble
Born
Kumble barely turned his leg-breaks; he bowled them fast, flat and straight with extra bounce, and relied on accuracy and top-spin. On a wearing Delhi pitch in 1999 he took all ten Pakistan wickets in an innings, only the second bowler to do it in Tests. His 619 Test wickets prove that craft can be built on pace and persistence rather than big spin.
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Saqlain Mushtaq
Saqlain is widely credited with developing the doosra, the off-spinner's delivery that turns the other way, and he used it to become the fastest bowler to 100 and 200 one-day international wickets at the time. In Chennai in 1999 his ten wickets beat India by 12 runs. His influence on modern finger spin, as a bowler and later a coach, is enormous.
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Graeme Swann
Born
Swann gave orthodox off-spin an attacking edge, ripping the ball with a big flick and drift, and he struck early in his spells. With Monty Panesar he spun England to a series win in India in 2012-13, rare for touring spinners. He also took wickets in English conditions that normally favour seam, a sign of control and dip rather than reliance on the pitch.
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Rangana Herath
Born
Herath was a short, unathletic left-arm spinner who spent years in Muralitharan's shadow and then took over 400 Test wickets, most after turning 30. He relied on changes of pace and an arm ball rather than big turn, and his 9 for 127 at Colombo in 2014 against Pakistan shows him at his cunning best. Few have done more with less obvious gifts.
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Ravichandran Ashwin
Born
Ashwin treated off-spin as a problem to solve, with carrom balls, changes of seam position and close study of each batter. He took 537 Test wickets before retiring in December 2024, and his record at home made India nearly unbeatable there for a decade. His spells in Australia, including the 2020-21 series, answered critics who said he relied on Indian pitches.
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Nathan Lyon
Born
Lyon was a groundsman at the Adelaide Oval before becoming Australia's leading off-spinner, and he thrived where finger spin is supposed to struggle: on bouncy Australian pitches, using overspin, dip and over-the-wicket angles to get bounce and edges. He passed 500 Test wickets, one of very few off-spinners to do so. His control lets Australia rotate four seamers around him.
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Rashid Khan
Born
Rashid bowls leg-spin and googlies at quick pace with a fast, hard-to-read wrist, which makes him one of the hardest bowlers to hit in T20 cricket. He has played in franchise leagues around the world and led Afghanistan to the semi-finals of the 2024 T20 World Cup. For a list rooted in Test craft, he is the white-ball master who shows the same skill under different pressures.
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Sophie Ecclestone
Born
Ecclestone's left-arm spin, delivered from a tall height with drift and bounce, made her the world's top-ranked women's bowler for long stretches and one of England's quickest to many wicket milestones. In the rare women's Tests and Ashes matches she bowls long, patient spells, unusual in a game played mostly over 20 or 50 overs. Watch how she changes pace and angle within an over.
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