Top 5 Chinaman bowlers the world has seen

#3 Paul Adams

Paul Adams had the most unusual bowling action

The left-arm unorthodox spin bowler with an even more unorthodox bowling action, Paul Adams arrived on the world cricket scene as a teenager in 1995-96 season and surprised everyone with his “frog in a blender action”.

Adams enjoyed a successful first year in international cricket as batsmen were left confused by his action and struggled against his chinaman bowling. However, as time went on the South African lost the element of surprise with his action and the lack of variety in his bowling meant that batsmen became accustomed to Adams’ action and his struggles were compounded by injuries.

The emergence of Nicky Boje further reduced Adams’ involvement with the national side and the chinaman bowler played his last Test for the Proteas in 2004 to finish with 134 Test wickets (off 45 matches) and 29 ODI wickets (off 24 matches).

Not many believed the “frog in a blender” action would be seen again in top level of cricket. However, it did make a return through Indian youngster Shivil Kaushik who represented Gujarat Lions in the 2016 edition of the Indian Premier League.