First published in Wisden Cricket Monthly, former Kent and England left-arm spinner, Min Patel, explains the tools any spinner needs to flourish in today’s game.
Patel took 589 first-class wickets for Kent, and played two Tests against India, the country of his birth, in 1996. After retiring in 2008 he is now on Kent’s coaching staff and contributes to the ECB’s Pathway programme as a specialist spin-bowling coach.
This article was first published in issue 17 of Wisden Cricket Monthly. Subscribe here
What makes a good left-arm spinner in the modern game?
Looking at the different styles you’re getting now, the best left-arm spinners are the ones threatening the outside edge in first-class cricket and keeping the stumps in play in white-ball cricket. The ability to spin it is still paramount, of course. I’ve seen a lot of the younger generation tending to threaten the inside edge more. It comes from the sheer volume of one-day cricket they’re playing.
Are the requirements of bowling spin in one-day cricket really so different from first-class cricket?
The dynamics are very different. In one-day cricket you have 10 overs and they’re coming at you, so you want to keep the stumps in play, knowing that if they make a mistake, then you get rewards. Similarly in T20, you don’t want batsmen to get under the ball, so you might go full and straight. But then when you’ve got a fourth-day wicket in first-class cricket, you want to be threatening both edges of the bat. The white-ball format doesn’t need as much craft.
