Saeed Ajmal: An off-spinning great who may never play a Test in his home country

Saeed Ajmal © Getty Images

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Saeed Ajmal, born October 14, 1977, is one spinning great about whom no one can raise allegations of bowling on doctored wickets. Arunabha Sengupta writes that his stupendous record without having played a single home Test, making him one of the greatest spinners.

A unique phenomenon

Saeed Ajmal is a rare breed in most of the dimensions of his craft, and absolutely unique in one.

He is full of guile, as devious as any of the old masters of giving the ball a tweak. Yet, much of his bowling remains flat and quick. He gets much of his success with subtle variations of pace. And in spite of that, he can often beat the batsman in the air.

He is an off-spinner who captures more than half his wickets with the ball that holds its line, or that curious controversial variety called doosra which breaks the other way.

He has also done something few off-spinners have done before — threaten the opposition with claims of a mystery ball.

He did not make his Test debut till he was 32. And even after that late entry into international cricket, he continued to play all formats, including the instant variety acknowledged as the young man’s game. Indeed, he went on to be a hero of Pakistan’s Twenty20 World Cup triumph in 2010.

A collection of 147 wickets in Tests at 26.78, 146 dismissals in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) at 22.92 and an economy of 4.17, and 73 scalps in Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) at 17.15 at with an economy of 6.26 — these are incredible numbers.

In this shortest of careers, he has been charged with illegitimate action and has been subsequently cleared. The allegations and the condemning newspaper reports have neither affected his movement of his bowling arm nor its penchant for taking wickets. In this shortest of periods, he has ended up being hailed as one of the greatest off-spinners ever.

Finally, he is the only accomplished great cricketer who has never played a Test match on home soil.

It is perhaps this unique characteristic that underlines the macabre career. From the Test match point of view, his playing days have been brief — just 28 Tests since making his debut against Sri Lanka at Galle in July 2009. Dubbing someone ‘great’ on this limited evidence is fraught with danger. Yet, we can perhaps already brand him as the greatest off-spinner ever produced by Pakistan and one of the very best in the world.

Yes, it is a tall claim. It can be subjected to a lot of cross-examination. We know he is good, but can we really say he was great?

We have all revelled in his guile. We have all seen him outwitting helpless batsmen, getting them to snick a doosra to the slip, trapping them adjacent to the stumps while rooted to the crease, and also turning one sharply back past a flowing drive to peg back the middle and leg stumps. He can spin it across the face of the left-hander’s bat, and also curl it into him or fox him with a straight one. And all the while, the length and speed continue to vary.

He has picked up 10 wickets four times in his short career, in as diverse lands as Guyana, Cape Town, Dubai and Harare. We have seen him baffle Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla, bewilder Alastair Cook and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. We have seen a gem from Sachin Tendulkar being cut short by a round the wicket beauty, the last time the master ever batted in a One-Day International.

Yet, isn’t the claim of being ranked with the greatest tweakers in the history of the game a bit far-fetched?

We would say ‘no’.

Saeed Ajmal takes his wickets at a remarkable rate, costing very few runs per scalp. And most importantly, he does so in spite of never having had a wicket specifically made for his bowling. It is this uniqueness of having played all his Test matches on opponent or neutral territory that makes his claims to greatness more pronounced.

The fabulous away record

If we take a look at the most successful off-spinners since World War II (leaving aside men like Hugh Trumble because of the completely different conditions they encountered), we find that Ajmal is slotted right there with the very best of them. His average is the fourth-best among these men, and he has a strike-rate bettered only by Muttiah Muralitharan and Graeme Swann.

When we look at the men possessing better averages, we do notice a significant difference with Ajmal. Jim Laker bowled much of his life on the infamous soft English wickets of the 1950s, the cause of heartburn for many a visiting side. They were specifically tailored for Laker and his by Surrey mate Tony Lock. Likewise, Muralitharan bowled most of his life on the snake pits of Colombo and Kandy. Ajmal, again, has not had that luxury.

Off-spinners with more than 100 wickets since World War II:

If we look at how off-spinners have fared in away and neutral venues since World War II, it will give an even better indication of Ajmal’s unquestionable brilliance.

We find Ajmal is second to Tayfield in terms of averages, while his strike-rate is also second only to Graeme Swann. Even the greats of the field — Laker, Lance Gibbs and Muralitharan — do not boast as good an average. The table is very revealing if we consider off-spinners over the ages. Apart from Tayfield, Ajmal, Swann, Gibbs, Laker, Murali, Sonny Ramadhin and Ashley Mallett, all the other offies average over 30 away from home. The numbers of men like Harbhajan Singh and Srinivas Venkataraghavan are real eye-openers.

Off spinners in away and neutral venues since World War II — at least 50 wickets:

Even if we open the field to all spinners post-World War II, bringing the left-armers and wrist spinners into the fray, we still find Ajmal high on the list. What is interesting is another modern Pakistan spinner makes the list as well with flying colours. Abdur Rehman has 79 wickets in 17 Tests at a very impressive average of 26.93. It perhaps demonstrates that with the option of home wickets taken away, these spinners have had no choice but to adapt and excel in the alien conditions.

Spinners with sub-30 average away from home since World War II (at least 50 wickets):

Making up for lost time

To put Ajmal’s career in perspective, it makes sense to look at how other great off-spinners had fared in their first 28 Tests. Saeed Ajmal happens to have the highest number of wickets after 28 Tests, while he finishes fourth in terms of averages.

Apart from the obvious fact that he has performed at par with the best in the world till now, it also brings to light another characteristic of his career. He has been hungry to take wickets. Just like both Rehman and Ajmal have performed superbly in unfamiliar conditions because there has been no other alternative, the Pakistan off-spinner has rushed along to take wickets, because he had not been allowed to do so earlier. Age has never been on his side, and hence he has always been in a hurry to make up for the lost time.

Which brings us to the key question: How much cricket is left in Ajmal?

As he turns 36, history is slowly stacking up against him. Not many spinners have captured too many wickets after turning 36. Lance Gibbs is the only one to have taken 100, but his average did take a hit. Shane Warne more or less maintained his performance while neither Anil Kumble nor Muralitharan of the modern greats managed to do so. It is again a revealing table, because one would think that spin-bowling should be that facet of the game least touched by time. It does not turn out to be so.

Spinners after age 36 since World War II — 25 or more wickets:

Ajmal has already lost out by his late entry into the international scene and then the reluctance of the other teams to play Pakistan. He can end up as an unfortunate curiosity — a modern bowling great with less than 200 wickets.

However, we have already seen how absence of matches in his home country has spurred him to find ways to perform in the foreign conditions. Similarly, his lack of Test experience in early years may yet propel him to discover means to beat the arrow of time.

As he celebrates his 36th birthday, one does wish him several more years at the top. Alongside, one also hopes for the sake of the Pakistan fans that he will not end up as the pioneering great to have played all his cricket outside his country.

In photos: Saeed Ajmal’s career

(Arunabha Sengupta is cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twiter.com/senantix)