9 mystery spinners through the ages

8. Ajantha Mendis

Ajantha Mendis was outstanding in his breakthrough year

It surely has to be the story of a bowler who saw his graphs declining at a pace which only Virender Sehwag can emulate with his thunderous batting.

The mention of Virender Sehwag is no aberration as he was the only one who could pick the maverick Sri Lankan spin bowler in his early days when he used to terrorise the other batsmen with his bagful of tricks.

Flicking the ball with his fingers, much like the original mystery spinner, Jack Iverson, and the other practitioner of the "Iversons", John Gleeson, Mendis stunned the world with his deadly carom balls His Iversons came with a new name, the "carrom ball", taken from the way the striker is flicked in the popular board game in the subcontinent. Mendis broke the back of the formidable Indian batting line-up in the Asia Cup final in 2008 to script a memorable win for his side.

Mendis started with a bang in the longest version of the game as he took eight wickets in his first Test and 26 in his first series, two more than Alec Bedser's record for a three-match debut series.

However, his mystery faded way soon than it was expected as the prodigy Mendis failed to take over the mantle from Muralitharan as the leading Sri Lankan spinner after the veteran retired. He found no place in the Test team and was left to ply his trade in the shorter formats where he had decent success.

Mendis, who holds the record for the best figures in a T20I innings, saw his limited-overs career in jeopardy as well as he was left out of the Sri Lankan team far too often.

Once thought to be the emerging star of world cricket, Mendis now plies his trade in domestic cricket and will have to come up with something really significant to earn a place a back in his national team.