5 captains who introduced revolutionary moves in cricket

#2. Using spinner as opening bowler - Martin Crowe

Dipak Patel was among the first spinners to bowl with the new ball, courtesy Martin Crowe

The batsman marks his guard, all fielders take their position with eyes fixed at the crease, the umpire looks around, puts his hand down and shouts, 'Play'.

And then the bowler runs in and delivers the bowl with pace to the batsman. Until 1992, this was how a normal cricket match would start, with a pace bowler having the new ball.

But in 1992, Martin Crowe happened and he changed the opening scene of a cricket match. Instead of a pacer, he used a spinner to open the bowling and injected innovation in ODI cricket.

In Dipak Patel, Crowe discovered a spinner who wasn't afraid of getting hit for runs and was brave enough to bowl when only two fielders were permitted outside the thirty-yard circle. Patel had a mind of a pacer and had the ability to control the hard new ball with ease.

Crowe first utilized this strategy of offering the new ball to the spinner in the 1992 world cup match against Australia and the success of this strategy forced captains across the world to follow suit.