Dooley prepared for when action surprise wears off

Paddy Dooley says he doesn't mind people talking about his action because he admits it would be weird if they didn't.

The 25-year-old finger spinner has shot to cult-like status after just two games in the KFC BBL for an unusual bowling action inspired by Indian star Jasprit Bumrah.

"It's probably fair enough," Dooley tells cricket.com.au after claiming his maiden Big Bash wicket on debut for the Hurricanes last match.

"I mean, if I was an outsider I'd be making fun of my action."

As wild as it looks, Dooley explains there's a method to his unique style.

The left-armer used to bowl with a "Swanny double pump" modelled off former England off-spinner Graeme Swan until one fateful Christmas Day mucking around in the backyard.

"It's just something I started doing about four or five years ago that helped me with my rhythm," Dooley says.

"I was playing a bit of backyard cricket, mucking around with some Jasprit Bumrah impersonations and went 'oh, this is alright for my rhythm, so I'll give it a crack'.

"And the fact that people think it's fun and all of that, that's just fantastic.

"If it distracts the batters a little bit, especially when I haven't bowled to a bloke and they're trying to get used to the action, then that's a bonus as well."

Dooley, who made his BBL debut for the Heat against the Hurricanes as a Covid replacement last season, knows the surprise element will wear off the more he plays, but he's prepared for it when it does arise.

Having mystified commentators and former greats Michael Hussey and Michael Vaughan that night with what he was bowling despite the benefit of numerous television replays, Dooley also left Aussie allrounder Marcus Stoinis bewildered in his first match for the Hurricanes on Friday.

Stoinis played back to a ball that spun sharply away from his bat to clip the top of the off stump as he became Dooley's first T20 scalp when he was dismissed for his second straight duck to start the season.

"At the end of the day, blokes will start picking you and then they've still got to hit it," Dooley said.

"I still back myself to execute my skills in that situation.

"It's an added bonus at this stage that I'm new for people but I've still got a few things I'm working on as well to develop it as there's more footage of me going around.

"I think it's less so how it comes out but just the double pump, watching a batter for the first time they kind of baulk a little bit thinking that the ball is coming on the first round."

Since arriving in Hobart a couple of weeks ago after a stint in the Abu Dhabi T10 competition, Dooley, who outside of the Big Bash works full-time as a solicitor in Brisbane where he plays Premier Cricket for Western Suburbs, has been soaking in every opportunity such as training alongside Pakistan's superstar leggie Shadab Khan.

And his new teammates have also been keeping a keen eye on their new mystery spinner.

"The first session, every other coach and player was behind the net like watching how it was coming out and what each ball was doing," says Dooley, whose sister Josie also hit 185 runs in 11 appearances for the Renegades during the Weber WBBL season.

"Working with Shadab at training (and) just getting his insight, he's similar to me, he's got a lot of change ups and just how he deploys them to certain players, (has been) fantastic.

"The big thing he said to me was 'it's T20 cricket, you're going to get hit. You've just got to back yourself and bowl your best ball every ball'.

"If you bowl to a batsman based on their reputation, you're going to end up bowling slot balls and balls in their zone – you've got to bowl what you bowl best and back yourself to execute and hearing that from Shadab is fantastic.

Image Id: 4FD63656362642ECB26B9A73A6654427 Image Caption: Dooley celebrates his first Big Bash wicket with Shadab Khan // Getty

"And you see him, he'll go for boundary and bounce back quite often with a dot or a one.

"Obviously, it would have been nice to get the win (on Friday) but overall (it was) such cool experience bowling to good players and playing with the stars in the Hurricanes."

Dooley and Hobart will get a chance to avenge their first up loss to the Melbourne Stars when they face reigning champions the Perth Scorchers tonight in Launceston for their first home match of BBL|12.

Hurricanes squad v Scorchers: Asif Ali (Pakistan), Tim David, Paddy Dooley, Nathan Ellis, Caleb Jewell, Shadab Khan (Pakistan), Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Jimmy Neesham (New Zealand), Joel Paris, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Chris Tremain, Matthew Wade (c)

Scorchers squad v Hurricanes: Ashton Turner (c), Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Cooper Connolly, Stephen Eskinazi (England), Faf du Plessis (South Africa), Aaron Hardie, Peter Hatzoglou, Nick Hobson, Josh Inglis, Matt Kelly, Adam Lyth (England), Hamish McKenzie, Jhye Richardson, Andrew Tye