There aren't many of Jake Lintott: Left-arm wrist-spinners remain a curious rarity

NICK FRIEND: Signed by Birmingham Bears ahead of the T20 Blast, Lintott's unique selling point comes in his difference; left-arm wrist-spinners are fascinatingly few and far between

There aren’t many of Jake Lintott. For whatever reason, left-arm leg-spin has always been an unusual, infrequent art; you might go years without coming across any.

And yet, in a strange way, knowledge of that fact has kept him going. It has given him a point of difference and a sense of wizardry even in the difficult spells when he began to believe that his chance might never come again.

As the white-ball game evolves and coaches search for options that might add a whiff of the unknown to their armouries, he has conditioned himself to be waiting in the wings.

For Lintott, a 27-year-old from Taunton, the last fortnight has represented a new chapter. It was announced in late August that Warwickshire – in their T20 guise as Birmingham Bears – had signed him up for the Vitality Blast.

It is not his first taste of the competition, but rather a third. In 2017, he made his professional debut for Hampshire, before moving onto Gloucestershire the following year. One season – and three games – later, however, he was back at square one, released once more.

“It was quite a tough time after that,” he tells The Cricketer. “I found that quite challenging to deal with because when you do well, you hope to be rewarded for it.” There is no bitterness; he has known ever since he was first let go as a youth prospect by Somerset that it’s not always meant to be.

“I was never good enough back then and that’s fine, but someone actually saying that you’re not good enough is challenging,” he recalls. Jason Kerr, now the county’s head coach, was the academy director tasked with delivering the bad news.

In the meantime, he has built up a nomadic body of work first with Dorset and then with Wiltshire on the National Counties circuit, while figures in 2018 of 8 for 39 for Gloucestershire’s second team against Warwickshire nudged the door ajar for what has followed.

He played eight T20 matches in 2019 for Warwickshire’s second string, only once conceding his runs at more than eight per over. The season ended with the promise, at the very least, of remaining in touch. A year on, word kept.

Difference. It is a notion to which Lintott returns at several junctures. “It’s a big selling point,” he stresses, “so that’s a good thing for me.” Even in the press release sent out by Birmingham revealing his signing, sport director Paul Farbrace explained that “Jake offers us something completely different”.

^{Lintott has represented Hampshire, Gloucestershire and Birmingham in the T20 Blast}

“I’ve always wanted to prove people wrong,” Lintott says. “There are people still now who even since I’ve played for Hampshire and Gloucestershire ask why I’m still trying. It’s always been an ambition of mine to play professional cricket; I’ve not given up on it.

“That’s probably because I bowl left-arm wrist-spin and that’s so different. I know that if I get in and do well, opportunities open up and things can move quite quickly. That’s why I’ve not closed the door. Ironically, I think if I was a left-arm spinner, I probably would have stopped. The fact that I’m a bit different drives me on a bit.”

He has combined his search for a break with a role as director of cricket at Queen’s College Taunton, while doubling up as a club pro at Clevedon in the West of England Premier League, always retaining faith in a skillset rarely seen in the modern game, where left-arm finger-spin – with its greater consistency and capacity to turn the ball away from the right-hander – has been far more commonplace.

With the growth of the franchise circuit, however, and the opportunities it has handed to players from around the globe, there has been a gradual rise in number.

Kuldeep Yadav is a fixture of India’s white-ball teams, while Brad Hogg was long flying the flag on his own in both the Big Bash and Indian Premier League. He has been joined now by South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi and the Afghan pair of Zahir Khan and Noor Ahmad.

Even D’Arcy Short, an opening batsman first and foremost, has carved a position for himself as a useful, part-time option, while one of Shane Warne’s early replacements in Australia’s Test side was Beau Casson, who was only ever given a single opportunity. Before him, there was Paul Adams, the South African whose unusual action brought him recognition.

And when Lintott travelled to Wantage Road to face Northamptonshire in just his second game for Birmingham, he observed Freddie Heldreich, an 18-year-old Suffolk-born academy prospect, practising ahead of the match for the home side.

“I saw him bowling in the nets,” Lintott adds. “I didn’t get the chance to catch up with him, but I’d have liked to. You want to see more and more come into the game. We bring something completely different – the ability to go across right-handers with googlies and target the stumps with leggies.

“And then you’ve also got left-handers and variations. But also, you’ve got the fact that nobody has faced it, really. That’s the thing that strikes me – there isn’t really anyone who’s faced it. It’s all a bit new to people.

“I rely on people not being able to pick me. I’m quite lucky – I tend to bowl with a very fast arm. Even in the nets at Warwickshire, I’m constantly asking people if they picked it.

^{The left-arm wrist-spinner has also represented Wiltshire and Dorset on the National Counties circuit}

“I’m trying to get my arm over quickly and bowl it at good pace. I’m not trying to spin the ball a huge amount – I’m just trying to beat the bat. I don’t think I need to spin the ball masses, so I’m trying to bowl with good pace and make sure people can’t pick me.

“That, I think, is where my success came in my first two games. The batters weren’t quite sure which way it was going, so they couldn’t run at me and hit me. I am trying to constantly work on that, being difficult to pick.”

It is why he has stuck with it. Lintott started life as a seamer but quickly found himself inadvertently bowling leg-cutters. Rather than correct his wrist position, his childhood coach suggested he develop his wrist-spin instead. The question, then, is simple: why is he among such a minority? In all likelihood, he will be the only man to perform his skill this season in English cricket.

“I think there’s a reluctance to allow people to develop at different rates,” he suggests. “It’s easy to tell someone to bowl left-arm spin, but then everyone does it. To be honest, the reason I’ve never bowled left-arm spin – and I always joke about it with people over the years – is that actually I’ve always loved bowling this.

“I love the fact that you can spin it both ways. Yes, there are frustrating times but it’s awesome fun to do. I really enjoy that side of it; being able to mess batters up is quite a good thing, so I enjoy that side of it. That’s why I’ve stuck with it, I guess. I get a buzz out of that – trying to make batters look silly, I guess that’s what leg-spin is really. You’re trying to deceive batters.

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“That’s where it’s slightly different to left-arm spin; you could say it’s just putting it in an area and making it hard to hit. For me, I’m just trying to take wickets and be aggressive. I’m really competitive and I like getting in the battle. I’m a real competitor.”

Lintott classes the last year – and specifically the lockdown period – as a personal turning point. Through the winter, he was given Tuesdays off by his school who left his timetable empty, allowing him to commute to Edgbaston once a week to train with the club.

He has lost 18 kilograms since November and ran 700 kilometres during the height of the global halt caused by coronavirus, when he found himself cooped up in his boarding house at school, unable to return home.

He has historically struggled with weight loss but believes that a new-found obsession with running has changed him. “I’ve always found it hard to juggle with full-time work and finding time,” he says.

“That was something that I wanted to put right, so I used that lockdown period – I just ran and ran and ran. I got a bit addicted to it and I decided I wasn’t going to give them any sort of excuses. I’ve always backed my skills; I’ve been performing at the weight I was.

^{Paul Adams, one of few left-arm wrist-spinners to have played on the international circuit, found fame with his unusual action}

“I felt like if I got fitter, it would take all that doubt out. It has helped me massively with my fielding and I feel better about myself. That has been pretty big for me.

“It has been tough. I woke up countless times when I really didn’t want to get up and run, but you just have to do it. It was when the Prime Minister said you could do one piece of exercise per day. I could go out once a day, so I decided to go out running for an hour. I just got into it and loved it.”

And what of the future? Jeetan Patel, Warwickshire’s veteran off-spinner, is due to retire at the end of the current campaign. At least in theory, his departure might widen the opening for a younger veteran, who has put in the hard yards to finally reach this point.

Lintott had been due to join the county on their pre-season tour of La Manga, before it was cancelled amid the Covid-19 outbreak. He has used the last fortnight to pick the brains of Patel, who has spent part of his summer as England’s spin bowling consultant, and Graeme Welch, the bowling coach at Edgbaston.

He points specifically to the wickets of Marchant de Lange and Josh Cobb as evidence of the preparatory work he has put in and the rewards he has reaped as a result.

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De Lange, on the back of a brutal Bob Willis Trophy century, would try to hit Lintott between long-on and deep midwicket, he considered. And so, he fed him with wide googlies, forcing the South African power-hitter to fetch him from outside off-stump and against the spin. Ultimately, he fell into the trap; Lintott bowled his four overs for just 13 runs.

“Paul Farbrace brought me in and he’s been really good with the way he’s communicated with me,” he adds. “He’s said: ‘You’re good enough, Just go out and enjoy it.’ He hasn’t put any pressure on me. This time around, it feels like there is far less pressure on me than before.

“I feel like I deserve to be there and I feel like part of the team, and that has reflected in my performances. I’m just trying to enjoy it and trying to smile. If I get hit for 60 in four overs, well unfortunately that is T20 cricket. It can happen.

“Obviously, I’m trying not for that happen and doing a lot of prep work to make sure I know what batters are doing. Sometimes, you bowl really well and get hit for 40, and sometimes you bowl quite badly and they spoon one up in the air.”

For the moment, it doesn’t matter to Lintott which way they come. After plenty of graft, he is just chuffed to be back playing professional cricket, showing off an artform that remains all too rare.

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