The Doosra: Cricket's Most Controversial Spinning Delivery

The doosra (Urdu for 'the other one') is a delivery bowled by an off-spin bowler that turns from leg to off — the opposite of the standard off-break. It looks identical in action to the off-break until the ball leaves the hand, making it extremely difficult for batters to read.

Origin

Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq is widely credited with developing the doosra in the late 1990s. He used it to deceive batters who were setting up to hit with the spin and suddenly found the ball going the other way. Muttiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka later became its most famous exponent, using it as a key weapon alongside his off-break and top-spinner.

The Illegal Action Controversy

Bowling a doosra requires pronating (rotating outward) the bowling wrist in a way that biomechanically demands a degree of elbow extension beyond what is humanly possible without flexing. ICC research found that virtually all doosra bowlers exceed the 15-degree elbow-flexion limit permitted under the Laws of Cricket. As a result, many bowlers — including Muralitharan after multiple tests — were either banned or had their doosra specifically suspended while their other deliveries were cleared.

Modern Equivalents

Some left-arm spinners bowl a delivery called an 'armball' that achieves similar directional confusion without the elbow issue. The carrom ball (flicked from the finger tips) and the teesra (a straight one) complement the doosra as off-spin variations. Ravichandran Ashwin and Nathan Lyon rely more on flight and drift than on the doosra.