1. Shane Warne – Australia
From the moment Shane Warne bowled the ‘Ball of the Century’ to Mike Gatting in 1993, spin bowling and indeed bowling at Test level would not be the same again.
For years Warne combined skill, flair, control and mind-games to wage war against the best batsmen in the world, and made entire batting orders look silly along the way
Possessing a brilliant cricket brain, Warne turned what was quickly becoming a lost art-form in leg-spin bowling into not just relevant to a bowling attack, but vital.
His 708 Test wickets came on all surfaces against all opponents and at different stages of Test matches, as he not only combined the strike nature needed of a spinner, but also the control, going for just 2.65 runs an over in his 145 Test career.
Warne’s arsenal included not just leg-spin, but at least four kinds of leg-spin stock ball, along with a googly, wrong-un, a self-named zooter, and perhaps his most famous delivery the flipper, which was bowled out the front of the hand often pitched short of his usual length and skidded forward off the pitch catching batsmen on the crease for LBW or bowled.
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