Richard H Thomas marks out 10 mystery spinners from the game’s history, who bamboozled the best in business with their unique craft. Introduction by Roshan Gede.

Richard H Thomas picks out 10 mystery spinners, who have made a mark across decades.

What will England get when Saqlain joins as a consultant for the series against his country of birth, Pakistan? One of the most durable magicians on our list, that’s what. According to Simon Wilde, one reason for such longevity (833 first-class wickets) is “a delivery which few batsmen could pick” – one that shaped towards slip but spat viciously, “with no discernible change of action”. The craftiness was developed at Surrey, when skipper Adam Hollioake insisted every new batsman got Saqlain’s doosra first up. So when Hollioake faced his pal in an ODI at Sharjah, he knew it was coming, but it still fooled him. Unfortunately for Saqlain, Moin Khan missed the stumping.

2. BS CHANDRASEKHAR

The greatest magician of all. One diminutive Sri Lankan, all versions of all deliveries, tons of wickets and a whole heap of controversy. Some, reflects Hugh McIlvanney, took “an ambiguous attitude” towards him. Fortunately, he says, plenty thought of him as “a totally legal baffler of batsmen”. Mike Selvey reports that when Fred Trueman reached 300 Test wickets he remarked that anyone who did the same would “be bloody tired”. But by 300, reports Selvey, Murali “had scarcely warmed up”. When he took his 800th, with batsmen no clearer about what he was doing than when he took his first, McIlvanney concluded that “sporting immortality could not be bestowed on a more modest or endearing human being”.

First published in 2016.