07/09/2025
'Doosra' is one of the most sophisticated tricks a bowler can have in cricket. Many have tried it, but most have failed. Recently, Bangladesh spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz has told that it is impossible to bowl doosra without bending the elbow much.
It is essentially a variation for off-spinners, similar to what the googly is for leg-spinners. Just as the wrong’un of a leg-spinner is called a 'Googly', the wrong’un of an off-spinner is called a 'Doosra.' Normally, an off-spinner’s delivery turns into a right-handed batter, but the 'Doosra' is a special variation that turns away from the right-hander.
The inventor of the Doosra was, of course, Saqlain Mushtaq. But here comes the interesting part: cricket is a sport that originated in England, and almost every technical term in the game is English. So how did a subcontinental word like “Doosra” become so popular in world cricket?
The credit goes to the Moin Khan–Saqlain Mushtaq duo. In the late 1990s, Saqlain developed this new delivery. It looked exactly like his regular off-spin, but instead of spinning in, it moved away from the right-hander — the off-spinner’s version of the wrong’un as it is said before.
Behind the stumps, wicketkeeper Moin Khan used to shout in local language (Urdu), “Doosra wala daalo!” (bowl the other one) whenever Saqlain was about to deliver it. During one of those matches, commentator Tony Greig overheard the word “Doosra” and picked it up.
From that moment on, the delivery became famous worldwide as the “Doosra,” which literally means “the other one” in Urdu/Hindi.
