Doosra

An off-spinner's delivery that turns the opposite way (from leg to off to a right-hander) using a back-of-the-hand release — pioneered by Saqlain, perfected by Saeed Ajmal and Muralitharan.

'Doosra' is Urdu/Hindi for 'the other one' — coined to describe the off-spinner's ball that turns the opposite way.

Popularised by Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq in the late 1990s and later refined by Saeed Ajmal and Muttiah Muralitharan; the ICC's 15° elbow-flexion tolerance (2005) reshaped who could bowl it legally.

Advanced — high-skill ceiling, requires drilled repetition and biomechanical screening before match use.

Index and middle fingers split across the seam; wrist rotated so the back of the hand faces the batter at release.

Requires significant forearm pronation late in the action — the reason elbow flexion is closely monitored against the ICC 15° threshold.

Side-spin tilted the opposite way to the off-break; combined with similar drift the batter sees an apparently identical seam at release.

Bowl from wide of the crease to a right-hander aiming for the outside edge, or to slip a doosra past a sweeping bat.

Repeated end-range pronation stresses the medial elbow; load monitoring and ICC biomechanical screening (240+ fps video) are mandatory at first-class level.