The reason I ask this question is because I only really saw Murali at the very end of his career (I only started watching cricket to a tragic degree in the 2010s), which is a shame because I did love watching him bowl when I had the chance.
I recently watched two videos of Murali where his wicket-taking deliveries were very different. In the first video Murali took 16 wickets against England at the Oval in 1998. Most of his wickets came from big-turning offbreaks, pitching well outside off stump and then ripping in quickly to bowl batsmen or catch them LBW. Left-handers were mostly out stumped or caught at slip due to the big turn. In fact, none of his wickets in this match came from bowling a doosra - they all appeared to be off-breaks or straighter deliveries.
The second video shows Murali taking 10 wickets against England at Lords in 2006. In this clip most of his wickets are from doosras (7 of them if I've counted correctly) where he bowls over the wicket to left-handers and catches them in-front of the stumps, or duping right-handers into playing for the turn in only to be bowled/LBW by the ball turning away. While he does catch the left-handers Trescothick with a big off-break spinning across him, the magnitude of spin on Murali's off-breaks isn't as noticeable in the 2008 clip as it is in the 1998 clip.
For those who have watched Murali's career, is this difference due to a change in his bowling style over the years? I've always assumed he bowled the doosra from the beginning - did he only develop it partway through his international career? Did he have injuries that impacted his ability to turn it as much, so he began to use variations such as the doosra more? Or is simply down to different pitches,the make-up of the opposition etc.
Thanks in advance.
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