Usman Tariq's action has confounded umpires. Twice he was reported during the Pakistan Super League (PSL), but cleared both times. (AP Photo)
The round-arm flings of Usman Tariq would tax batsmen’s eye, just as it would overwork the doubters’ fingers, furiously alternating between rewind and pause buttons. Australia all-rounder Cameron Green was left unamused when the Pakistan off-spinner ejected him in a recent T20I; he angrily mimicked the action, as if suggesting that Usman had exceeded the 15-degree bent-elbow limit permissible to bowlers. But after watching the replays, he promptly apologised to the bowler.
Green, though, would not be the last batsman to trudge back wondering about the legality of Usman’s action.
The action has confounded umpires. Twice he was reported during the Pakistan Super League (PSL), but cleared both times. He is tired explaining the genesis of his unusual action.
“I have two elbows in my arm. My arm bends naturally. I have got this tested and cleared. Everyone feels I bend my arms and all that. My bent arm is a biological issue,” Usman explained to MYK channel.
In medical lexicon, he has double-jointed elbows, which means he cannot fully straighten his arms. The great Muttiah Muralitharan too had a congenital deformity and was unable to straighten his bowling arm. Few bowlers have undergone such unremitting scrutiny as the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket. Similarly, Shoaib Akhtar had ‘noodle arms’, whereby his shoulder, elbow and wrists hyper-extended. His joints were unfathomably loose and flexible. Jasprit Bumrah too has a hyper-extended elbow, which means he’s releasing the ball closer to the other end.
It is a natural advantage, like some bowlers are hauntingly tall or some have wondrously malleable wrists.
The mechanics of Usman’s action are more fascinating. The 28-year-old’s run-up, more a stagger, is ridiculously short and slow. He tosses the ball from his left to right arm once, like Shane Warne. He zigzags in his strides, from just behind the umpire, holding the ball waist-high, treading dangerously close to cutting the crease, and pauses for an eternity. The ball is somewhere close to his chest, before his right-arm extends like the hand of a wind turbine, almost blocking the umpire’s vision, the arm and lower body stoops, as though he mistook the pitch for a tenpin bowling lane and tenderly releases the ball, careful not to hurt the pitch or the ball.
The action bears uncanny resemblance to the king of round-arm slings, Lasith Malinga, albeit light years slower. The pace ranges between 75-80 kph.
His dream, though, was always to bowl fast. He has the frame, the luxuriant hair girdled by a thick ribbon than a headband, and the aggression. But he got injured mid-match during a tennis-ball game in Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Short of bowlers, he continued to bowl, but off-breaks. He got a heap of wickets and the coach encouraged him to bowl spin. Whether he bowled pace with the same action is not known.
His action takes some getting used to. The slowness of his action, in a format in rampaging haste, turns batsmen fidgety. He then tests the peripheral vision, as the batsman has to shift his gaze to almost the line of the umpire to watch his wrists and decipher the variation. The angle of release takes the ball away from the right-hander. He exaggerates the effect with away-drift. Upon landing, the ball spins away subtly.
Stumpings have been a recurrent theme in his highlight reels. He employs both the arm-ball and carrom ball. To retain his mystery quotient, Pakistan have used him sparingly. Just three games, which brought eight wickets at an average of 7.50 and an economy rate of 5.62.
The change-up is the one that slithers into the right-handed batsman. It’s a more devastating delivery because of the sumptuous away-drift Usman purchases. Sometimes, he employs a back-of-the-hand wrong’un like a leg-spinner.
To change up the change-up, he uses a conventional off-break method, though the rip is not as pronounced as that of a classical off-spinner. The trajectory is not as low as Kedar Jadhav. Usman is considerably taller, six feet or thereabouts, while Jadhav is 5’5”.
The variations, the rare gift of bowling similar balls differently, accentuate the uniqueness of his action. Add clever shuffling of speeds, lengths and release points, and he becomes a daunting bowler.
But his was almost a career that didn’t happen. When livelihood realities seized him, he quit cricket and shifted to Dubai. But the movie MS Dhoni: The Untold Story revived his cricketing dreams.
He quit his job as a purchase coordinator in a real estate firm, returned home and started playing cricket again. In 2023, PSL scouts discovered him and parachuted him into the league. The rest is round-arm fling history.
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